Around the Worlds in Thirty Days
by TheSari
Summary: Lloyd and friends are all going on a boat trip, but there's a catch. There's a lot of kids on board, and Kratos promised to stay on the boat for a month. Will he ever survive?
1. Day One l Kratos Comes Aboard

**Sari: Whee!**

**Moo: ...**

**Sari: Okay, this is an idea me and my friend (the aforementioned Moo) came up with. So, we're writing it together. It's based on when Lloyd says he wants to ride a boat around the world after he, um, rids it of exspheres. So... It's done in days, so thirty chapters in all.**

**Moo: Its possessed, but you can read it if you really feel like it. I mean, I don't see why you would... Oh yes, I'm not a Goth either, though I sometimes act that way...**

**Disclaimer: WE DON'T OWN ANYTHING FROM TALES OF SYMPHONIA.**

**Warnings: Much implied Colloyd and Sheelos. If you've not reached that fateful scene at Altessa's with Yuan and Kratos, this shall contain many spoilers.**

The water was turquoise and clear, just like the sky. Even Kratos Aurion was forced to take off his long sleeved shirt and replace it with a cheesy tourist t-shirt that he bought from one of the many street carts on the Altamira time square. He looked around at the many tourists as they sunbathed and ran around on the sandy beach, amused. Something about them made him feel out of place. Silently wishing he were out of all this sun and happy people, he walked over to the dock, where a huge sailboat was docking.

"Hi, Kratos!" Squealed an attractive young blonde woman, who promptly managed to fall off of the boat into the water. Luckily, she was in her swimsuit, so that was okay. It was lucky she was sensible enough to swim out of the way.

"Hello, Colette."

A few women swooned in the background at the sound of Kratos' voice, but otherwise, nobody really reacted.

"Eeigh! Stupid Chosen!"

"Ah, my voluptous hunny!" Zelos flirted, chasing Sheena happily. "You're looking more gorgeous than ever!"

"Getoffame or I'll set Gnome on you!"

"Ahh, why not Celsuis? She's so much more gorgeous..."

"If it has female body, it's enoguh for you, isn't it?" Asked Raine, appearing from apparently out of nowhere. For what seemed like the first time in her life, she was wearing a bathing suit and beach cover-up, subathing on the huge, polished deck. A large tome labeled The History of Magitechnology was lying by her beach chair. She was joined by a short, pink-haired woman with overlarge sunglasses. Genis was attempting to adjust the sails from the crow's nest, a simply impossible thing to do. Then, to Kratos' surprise and horror, six little children were running around the deck, accompanied by a miserable looking Regal.

"I've been told to look after the children," he imformed Kratos with a tone of helplessness in his voice. Kratos decided not to offer his help.

"Whose kid's are they?" he asked, hoping that they were some random woman's from Altamira that Colette had graciously decided to baby sit. Yet all of them, even the girls, resembled Lloyd in a slightly unnerving way...

"They're _all_ Lloyd and Colette's. There are two more kids, too. Lloyd is indoors attempting to feed the youngest one –I think he's about 3 months- a bottle, and the oldest one is most likely at the bow, fishing or something. Well, I'm just glad I'm only on this boat for one more week- _Sheena don't touch that!"_ A little sandy haired kid was poking a jelly fish with one of Lloyd's swords (!) happily. She looked about two.

"Why?" Sheena asked, turning around, drawing her hand back in from the railing that went downstairs.

"Please don't tell me he named them all after his friends..." whispered Kratos, looking white.

"He did." Regal answered, taking the sword away by force. "KRATOS! GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!"  
Kratos jumped. "I am..."

"No, no, Kratos..."

"What?" asked an annoyed teenage voice from behind them. A thirteen-year-old boy emerged from behind the mast, his hair a rusty brown color and ruffled. He was holding a fishing rod, that looked homemade.

"I want you to put Sheena and Raine inside, its time for their afternoon nap. Then, go find Lloyd and Colette and tell them that I'm out buying some more food for the trip to Sybak. Then we should be ready to sail," he instructed the surly teen. Kratos threw him a disgusted look, but listened anyway. He picked Sheena up and balanced her precariously on his hip while tiny Raine, a plushy giraffe in hand, climbed onto his shoulders. The older Kratos looked at his grandson, exasperated.

"I'll come with you," he said, unable to pinpoint the exact reason for why he was so curious about his teenage grandson. They disappeared under the boat to the living quarters.

"Well, how many kids _are_ there?" Asked Kratos, a bit of panic in his voice, "When Colette sent me the letter asking me to come on the boat for a month, she only said 'we have kids.'" His grandson placed Raine and Sheena into their cribs, roughly pulled the covers up over their eyes to quiet them and walked from the room and into another, which was decorated with many posters and pictures of famous rockstars and such. The older Kratos eyed a sword in the corner, balanced precariously on a shelf. Kratos slumped onto the bed.

"Well, I'm thirteen, and I'm the oldest... Mum had me when she was..." He blushed slightly and continued, "Then there's Genis and Presea, who are four. They're twins. Then... oh yeah, Zelos, he's three. Then there's Sheena and Raine, I just put them to bed for their nap, and they're two. And then there's Regal, who's one and Dirk, who's only like three months." The older Kratos' jaw dropped in horror, but he quickly regained his cool.

"Okay, let's go tell your mom and dad that Regal's out," Kratos said, still shocked at the number of children on the boat. Kratos followed him, both looking around for Lloyd or Colette.

Colette, who was on board and wringing out her wet hair from her unexpected swim, tripped and fell into Kratos' arms.

"Ah-h! I'm sorry!" She said, getting back to her feet. "So... What is it?"

"Regal wants you to know he's out getting food. I'm going back to fishing," the younger Kratos said darkly, turning around on his heel and striding out.

"Okay! I'm going to go check on the twins! I'll be back!" Colette said, beginning to walk away.

"Which set of twins?" Kratos asked. "The younger ones are in bed."

"Little Genis and Presea. Oh, I hope Presea isn't playing in the kitty litter again..."

"Kitty... litter...?" Kratos said, white.

"Oh, yes, for Simon the cat! And then there's Murray the dog and Noishe! So the pets are on the boat, too!" Colette looked simply delighted, but Kratos was wondering how he was going to survive an entire month on board.

_Oh no,_ Kratos thought. _I'm allergic to cats._

Regal came back with a large array of spices, and some hotdogs. They roasted them on the grill ("Isn't this grill handy?" Lloyd said enthusiastically, lighting the mainsheet.) And, after a joined effort, put all the children to sleep, except for Kratos, who preffered fishing. After observing his grandson for a while, the older Kratos assumed that Simon was Kratos' cat, seeing that everyone else that approached it got mauled.

"That was delicious," Colette said happily, snuggling up next to Lloyd and looking at the stars, "There's the constallation, Origin!" Presea looked up at it. She still hadn't taken off her sunglasses, even though the sun had set an hour ago.

"Hey, who wants some wine, I bought some good stuff at the Altamira bar this morning," Genis called from the kitchen. A few adults raised their hands lazily.

A small child could be heard talking in their sleep.

"Bubbles, no, not the giant rainbow!" It was unmistakeably little Zelos, though no one had the slightest inkling about what the three-year-old was talking about.

"You know what, Lloyd, I have no idea how you manage living with ten million little kids," Zelos said lazily, drinking much more wine than he should have been drinking. Sheena was sitting in his lap, but was looking as though she wanted to leave because he was getting steadily drunker.

"Uh, I dunno, they're kinda cute, you know," Lloyd said, wrapping a strand of Colette's hair around his finger absent mindedly. Kratos lay silent in a bright pink beach chair, looking up at the many summon spirits' constallations. He was thinking about how Lloyd had once told him, long ago, it seemed, that he'd always wanted to travel the world on a boat. Well, he was living his dream now, after spending three years hunting down all the exspheres.

"I'm turning in for the night, cool boat Lloyd," Kratos said, standing up abruptly. He walked past the children's room ("Rainbows are everywhere! NOOO!") and into his own, which Colette had undoubtedly decorated. It had plaid curtains (pink and green) and a pretty lacey bed which made Kratos flinch. He was sleeping in this for a month... well, at least the mattress was squishy.

**Sari: He he! Read and reveiw, please!**

**Moo: Yes, please do...**


	2. Day Two l A Lesson in Parenting

**Moo: Well, yes, Kratos survived day one…**  
**Sari: …but will he survive day two?  
Moo: I can't wait to find out.****  
Sari: Er... You wrote it. You should know.****  
Moo: Eh heh...**

**Disclaimer: We don't own Namco! Er, I mean Tales of Symphonia! Er, I mean, neither!**

**Warnings: Little Tiny Spoiler at the beginning. Er, and a lot of spoilers if you've not reached the scene with Yuan and Kratos at Altessa's.  
**

Kratos, miraculously, did survive day one on Lloyd's giant ship, which he figured out was named 'The Chosen.' A small child by the name of Genis told him all about it at 5:00 AM, the time he woke his grandfather up on his second day aboard the boat.

"…So that's why she became Martel's…uh…" Genis looked like he was struggling for words. Kratos rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stifled a yawn.

"…Vessel?" he prompted the little boy. Genis smiled happily and hugged Kratos' knees, much to Kratos' horror. Then he darted from the room and into his parent's, where Kratos heard Lloyd's unhappy grunts. Shaking his head in disbelief, Kratos got to his feet and walked out onto the deck, where he saw Colette sitting at a large, circular, folding table eating a bowl of Cheerio's. She was accompanied by all of her children, excusing Genis, who ran past Kratos and jumped into his mother's lap.

"Good morning, Kratos!" Colette said with a smile as he sat down beside her.

"Morning," He said as jubilantly as he could, taking a piece of toast off of a plate one of his grandchildren offered him and buttering it. He unexpectedly sneezed.

Simon the cat was sniffing Kratos' chair, his hazel green eyes staring up at Kratos. The cat mewed and pawed at his hand. Kratos quickly withdrew it. Colette beamed at him.

"Oh wow! Simon normally doesn't like anyone but my son Kratos, but I guess he's taken a liking to you!" She said, forcing another piece of toast upon him. Kratos smiled back uneasily, then, when Colette was preoccupied with one of her children, whispered to the cat, "Psst! Go away!" Simon continued to stare.

Kratos' day wasn't as horrible as it could have been, though it wasn't a dream either. Everywhere he looked there were screaming kids, and he even found himself giving one of them a bath after breakfast. It wasn't very pleasant, seeing that it was little three-year-old Zelos, who was talking non stop about everything from his favorite color to the dream he had last night. He also had to change his clothes afterward; they were covered in soapy bubbles and strange pink goo that he guessed came from a shampoo bottle that Zelos had thrown at him.

"I don't know how you can stand it," Kratos said to his grandson, Kratos, at lunchtime. They were grilling a fish on the grill. Kratos had been very proud, because he had caught it alone, and it was about eighteen inches long.

"Practice," The grandson said matter-of-factly, "Just knowing when to hide, what to say to make them go away, the normal stuff. Besides, when there are so many new adults on the boat, I'm pretty boring to them because they see me every day." He flipped the fish expertly. Surprised, Kratos found himself taking a liking to the boy, something he had thought impossible when he walked onto the boat. However, Colette -who was holding what seemed to be little Presea with tons of kitty litter on her head- interrupted Kratos' talk with his grandson, begging him to watch babies Sheena and Raine while she bathed Presea. Kratos excused himself from a disgruntled looking Kratos, and went to go watch the kids with Lloyd.

"I haven't seen much of you since you came on the boat," Lloyd said to Kratos as they sat down on the deck together. On closer inspection, Lloyd still looked as young as he did when he was eighteen, as did Colette, but they did look more tired than Kratos remembered seeing them, probably from the children. Well, their youthful looks obviously came from their Crusix Crystals, but Kratos guessed his son would have gray hairs if he'd been allowed to age properly.

"Has having all these kids been strenuous?" Kratos asked, absently handing a block to little Sheena, who chewed it before placing it on top of her block castle. Lloyd sighed tiredly, but his smile was genuine all the same.

"Yeah, but I love them. Its kinda cool having tons of little kids walking around acting like me. They remind me of what I was like when I was a kid, and a little bit of what Colette was like too. They're great kids too, a little annoying at times, but they're really great…" Lloyd replied. He didn't seem to notice that Raine was sucking on his fingers.

"You do like them, right?" Lloyd asked, questioning the uneasy expression Kratos had when Sheena flopped into his lap, "Because they like having their –er– real grandfather around. I hate to admit it, but Dirk freaks 'em out a little bit." He laughed a little bit and tickled Raine, who fell to the deck in a hysterical peal of laughter.

"Yeah, they're…er… fun," Kratos replied, knowing he sounded much less than convincing. Lloyd raised his eyebrows at his father, and shook his head.

"I know you never got around to parenting much, but you should give them a chance, Dad, seriously. I mean, I was just as annoying when I was little, but still, I turned out okay," Lloyd reasoned. Kratos didn't say it, but it meant a lot to him, Lloyd calling him Dad. Maybe… maybe he could give the little kids a chance. They were cute… in an annoying sort of way.

"Yeah, I'll try." He grinned at Lloyd and gestured to Lloyd's hair, which was smoking now. Raine, apparently, had read somewhere how to light a match, and was now attempting to light Lloyd's hair on fire with a spare one she found on the ground. Lloyd yelped and grabbed Raine.

"Don't you do that!" Lloyd said it mock horror, "You might…er… burn my brain!" Lloyd said, sounding terrified. Little Raine giggled, and gave Lloyd's head a wet kiss. Lloyd pulled a face of disgust at Kratos, just so Raine couldn't see.

"It all better now!" His little daughter said, happily returning to her block castle, which was a perfect model of the Tower of Salvation, though Lloyd had not the slightest idea on how she knew what it looked like. Once Lloyd was sure Raine was occupied, he hastily rubbed the spit from his hair.

"She always does that. Spits when she kisses," Lloyd said with a grin. And to Kratos' surprise, he was grinning too.

"Gampy!" Little Regal crawled up to Kratos as he was sitting on a beach chair, flipping idly through the pages of a magazine Colette lent him, called Tales from Symphonia. It mostly had interviews with famous people, and gossip, but Kratos had nothing better to do than to read it.

"Er, sorry, but what's 'Gampy'?" Kratos asked, looking around for Colette. Then he thought to himself I can handle this. It's just like Lloyd said. Give the little kid a chance. He smiled down at little toddling Regal. Then, to his slight horror and surprise, he found himself picking up the little kid and placing him in his lap. Little Regal reached out with a pudgy hand and grabbed a bunch of Kratos' hair gently. He giggled.

"My hair," Regal said patting his own hair, which was also reddish like Kratos', "like Gampy's hair too!" He patted Kratos' hair. Then Kratos realized that 'Gampy' meant Grandpa. He smiled at little Regal.

"Yeah, my hair does look like yours! But you have Colette's eyes through and through," He said to his grandchild, who merely nodded and babbled on some more. Then Colette called for dinner, and everyone got up and ran to the table, where everyone wolfed down portion after portion of "Uncle Genis'" famous pasta. Then, with an exceptionally fully stomach, Kratos fell asleep in his bed, not caring that his room was a lurid shade of pink and green, or that he was on a rocking ship with a storm brewing overhead, or that he was allergic to cats, but merely happy to be with the family which he had so long been deprived.

**Moo: Now, review! Chop chop!**


	3. Day Three l Storms and Raine

**Sari: Yay! It's my turn! For day three! Oh my... this one. Heh, I'm looking forwards to this.  
Moo: ... You sicko.**

**Disclaimer: ... Nope, I don't own it. Er, Tales of Symphonia, that is.  
**

**Warnings: Gensea and maybe Colloyd, but mostly Gensea. Some little Kratos spoilers.**

"Grampy!"

"Uh... what?" Five o' clock wake-up call was not making Kratos feel well at all. "What is it... Genis?" All of Colette and Lloyd's children were beginning to look the same...

"Grampy, daddy needs help on the ropes! Big problem!" Genis squealed, looking worried. "The Chosen is all rocky!"

"Rocky?" Kratos' mind wasn't fully functioning, but little Genis was not interested in the state of Kratos' mind right now.

"A storm!"  
"Oh, a storm." Kratos shooed the child out of the room, got dressed, and sprinted to the decks, which were spattered by rain. Kratos the younger and Lloyd were both fighting with the sails, attempting to get them down. Kratos leaped into flight, four thousand years of practice kicking into gear as he braced himself against the winds and began to fight with the sails next to Lloyd, who was also in flight, pulling the sails down. Kratos the younger was pulling the mainsheet down from the decks.

They were nearly finished, Kratos wiping a bead of sweat from his eye, when Lloyd gasped in pain.

"What is it?" Kratos asked, swinging around, to see Lloyd wincing against the pain of his wing as it was hit by a couple pieces of flying wood. He frowned. Why would some wood be flying – ah. The crows' nest wasn't holding up well to the high winds, and a few bits of wood were hurtling through the air. Lloyd breathed out slowly.

"Let's go down. Kratos is nearly done." Lloyd said, flapping his wings once to manage a good landing by his son. Kratos joined him in landing.

"Call an ambulance!" Colette screamed, waving her arms frantically.

"Um, mom? We're in the ocean. There aren't any ambulances." Kratos told his mother, shaking his head. "I'm getting Raine. She's the next best thing."

The older Kratos quickly slipped beneath the decks, going to his room to change out of wet clothes.

"Hmm, Lloyd needs me to heal him?" Raine asked, looking at Lloyd's wing critically. "Okay. I'm going to get my staff. I left it in me and Genis' room." She turned on her heel and walked quickly to her room and opened the door.

"GENIS!"

Genis looked up at Raine from Presea. "Um..."

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF MARTEL WERE YOU _DOING_?"

Presea looked at Raine. "We were... kissing. It's a display of mutual-"

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" Raine yelled, snatching her staff. Genis flinched.

"Don't hit me, sis!"

But instead of hitting her brother, Raine had turned on her heel and huffed and puffed back to Lloyd.

"Eh, whatever," Genis said with a shrug before he and Presea continued what they were doing before.

"Oh, that was _disgusting_." Raine moaned, reentering the room with Lloyd in it with her staff. "Two twenty-six-year olds..."

"Well, you know, they are twenty-six..." Colette said timidly, trying not to invoke Raine's rage as the healer healed Lloyd's wing. Kratos finally wandered back in.

"So... What did I miss?" He asked, noticing the Raine was seething and Colette didn't look too pleased either.

"Oh, just a _blatent_ show of affection on Genis and Presea's parts," Raine snarled, moving Lloyd's wing experimentally. "Which, of course, is not at all proper..."

"NOT proper!" Squealed little Raine, who had decided suddently that she wanted to be _just _like Raine. The two year old had scared Kratos when he first met her, at the breakfast table, with her nose buried in a monstrous book about ruins of the world.

"Exactly," Raine replied to the little girl. She patted Raine's head gently. "So, I'm very angry at Genis, and I can't exactly punish him, seeing as he's not a child anymore... so I just have to live with it. Which is awful."

Kratos shrugged and found his current least favorite person on board twisting around his ankles, purring. It was Simon the cat.

"And I'm allergic..." He moaned under his breath, sneezing a little. Colette looked at him oddly.

"Did you say anything?" She asked, looking concerned. "Have you got a cold?"  
"No..." He lied, making an attempt not to sneeze.

"Oh! Simon is bothering you! I'll get him." Colette, with a long wrestling match with the cat, managed to pick him up and slowly walk to the younger Kratos' room, which she muttered to herself that she needed to make him clean up, and dropped the cat inside.

"Hmm..." Raine said, looking at Kratos oddly. "You have allergies."

Kratos answered with a grunt.

"What's for dinner tonight?" Colette asked, looking at Regal expectantly.

"Trying a new recipe for chicken pot pie..." He said, looking into the oven carefully. "Ah, Regal, no, don't play with the eggs. They could break, you know."

Little Regal looked up at his namesake with puppy eyes from his play kitchen.

"No, Regal. Now, Genis, make sure you watch what your little brother is doing." Colette scolded Genis, who nodded quickly and resumed playing cooking.

"They're both so cute... They want to be like you and Genis when they grow up, I think..." Colette laughed, ruffling Genis' hair, who squealed, "I wanna be a chef!"

"Ah, the chicken pot pie is lovely..." Kratos said, eating his portion before lying back on his deck chair. He began picking out constellations, slowly telling them to his latest little friend, Murray the dog. Murray was the sort of dog with a lot of fur that went over his eyes. Sheena had begun braiding beads and other things like that into his fur, so he now made a funny noise when he walked, somewhat like he was clinking.

"Ah, it's awful getting the little ones to bed..." Lloyd moaned, wiping at his forehead. Sheena laughed at him.

"Ah, Lloyd, it's not that bad!" She teased, poking him in the chest. He grinned.

"That because you have to put away Regal, and he's so tired he's out when he hits the pillow! You don't get 'Daddy! Bubbles will come back with his rainbows!'"

"What does he dream?" Kratos wondered to the dog lazily before he streached. "Well, I'm going to bed. Genis is making a habit of waking me up at five."  
"Better you then me," Lloyd answered.

And when Kratos went into his room, he had just begun to get used to that awful shade of green with pink, and those awful plaid curtains.

**Sari: Oh, oh, first reveiw!  
Moo: Sweeet!**

**Suza Fujibayashi – Wow, you can spell Sheena's name! (I can't. I just go Fujabujabuja. Everyone knows what I mean). Anyhow... Thanks. You really made my day (this is Sari speaking...). Yes, too many kids... and plaid curtains... eew, plaid. **

**Sari: Now, follow her example! She gets a cookie! Reveiw, please!  
**


	4. Day Four l Swimming Lessons

**Moo: Yes, day four.****  
Sari: Dayfourdayfourdayfourdayfour!**  
**Moo: …Someone had too much chocolate this morning.  
Sari: No, actually, blueberry cake.****  
(Little) Zelos: GIANT RAINBOW!**

**Disclaimer: ... Does anybody read these? Don't own it.**

**Warnings: Implied Gensea.**

Kratos was ready for the bouncing little child the next morning. It was Genis, again, talking non-stop about how he, Genis, was to become the greatest chef in the world, and invent a recipe that sounded like "Cooked Onion Alala." Kratos nodded his head as though he was interested, and shoved the little kid into 'Uncle Zelos'' room so he could get dressed in peace. He heard Zelos mutter some rather crude swear words before physically throwing the babbling Genis from his bedroom.

"Well good morning everyone!" Colette said brightly at Breakfast. She was bouncing little Dirk on her knee, who was blowing tiny spit bubbles, "Well, me and Lloyd have sailed past here at least twenty times, and if we are correct, there's a sandbar just up ahead, you know, shallow, knee-deep water. Well, Raine, Sheena and Regal are too young, but I thought that Genis, Presea and Zelos could go out there for some swimming lessons! Doesn't that sound like fun?" She smiled brightly at everyone, who grinned back unconvincingly.

"We'll stay on the boat and watch the other three and Dirk," The older Zelos and Sheena said at once.

"Er, I'm cleaning the kitchen, its filthy," Regal said, dashing off before any one could stop him. Lloyd and Colette were obviously going to teach their kids swimming lessons… Kratos guessed he would too. Genis and Presea, however, had still not turned up for breakfast…

"I… well, you said the water wasn't too deep, right?" Raine said worriedly. Everyone knew how terrified she was of water, even when she was in the boat she never looked over the railing. The younger Kratos patted her sympathetically on the shoulder, something that was very rare for him, seeing that he was normally rude and blunt.

"Hey, Aunt Raine, I'll come with you and show you how to fish, right off the sandbar!" He said consolingly. She looked slightly more relaxed, and it was decided that she would come as well.

"Hey, Dad, help me get these little monsters into their bathing suits," Lloyd called from inside. Raine and Colette were smothering a very disgruntled younger Kratos with sunscreen, who looked like he was about to kick them any second. The older Kratos walked into little Zelos' room to find Lloyd helplessly trying to force some bright yellow swimming trunks onto Zelos, who was screaming and kicking his tiny feet.

"Stop- OUCH!" Lloyd yelled as one of his son's flailing fists made contact with his nose. Kratos looked apprehensive, but went to go help.

"I can put my bathing suit on all by myself. Zelos is being a bad boy," Little Presea said proudly, walking around with her head sticking out of one of the armholes.

"Everyone ready?" Colette asked excitedly. Raine was wearing water wings and one of those cheap plastic tubes with a giraffe head sticking out of it. She was clinging to young Kratos' arm, who looked as though he couldn't feel his fingers anymore.

"Alright, jump!" Lloyd took a flying leap off the boat. They heard a splash (Raine screamed) and saw him surface, a grin spreading across his face.

"The water's great!" He declared, "Hey Zelos, come jump! I'll catch you." Little Zelos took a huge puff of air, held his fingers over his nose, and flung himself off the boat. Lloyd caught him inches before he hit the water. Zelos looked down at the beautiful turquoise water around him.

"What if Bubbles is hiding in the water, Daddy?" He asked Lloyd worriedly.

Well, things went pretty well for Kratos, who was trying to teach Presea how to do the 'Doggie Paddle'. She was a quick learner, but the only problem was she had a habit of eating sand once and a while ("It's like kitty litter!"). Kratos was just happy he wasn't in his grandson's position, who was stuck teaching Raine how to fish. Every time she got a nibble, she'd drop the rod in horror.

"The whole point of casting the line is to get the nibble," Younger Kratos explained exasperatedly. Raine nodded, and dropped the fishing rod again with a shriek.

"Hello, Murray!" Colette said as the big, shaggy dog swam towards her. Genis, who loved Murray, grabbed a fistful of the dog's fur and let himself be towed around for a while, that is, until Murray decided to dive for a rock that Lloyd threw. Genis surfaced, spluttering.

"This is so great! The kids learning how to swim, it's a gorgeous day and even Kratos is acting nicely!" Colette said, going to stand by Lloyd. He smiled at her.

"Yeah," he replied, then pointed at Presea, who was doing the front crawl. She seemed to bring her hands down hard in front of her, making a splash. Colette laughed.

"You used to swim like that," Lloyd said, smiling at her. Colette giggled, remembering the time that Lloyd taught her how to swim. Even when she was younger she had loved him, though she hadn't realized it then.

"It's BUBBLES!" Zelos shrieked, pointing at a small fish swimming by. He looked terrified. Lloyd picked him up and put him on his shoulders.

"Zelos, exactly who is Bubbles?" He asked, frowning slightly. Zelos' eyes grew wide, and he began a very long and complicated story about how Bubbles was the king of something that sounded like 'Foo-wee' and was trying to take over the world by sending giant rainbows after everyone. Lloyd nodded his head trying to look serious, then burst out laughing, much to little Zelos' confusion.

Meanwhile, back at the boat, the older Regal was watching helplessly as his charges tore around the boat at top speed, screaming and crying because Regal wouldn't let them eat the chocolate chip cookies that Colette had baked the day before. Regal had tried reasoning with the kids, but either they couldn't hear him over the ruckus that they were making, or they were making the ruckus so they purposely couldn't hear him, Regal couldn't tell.

"Now listen here kids-" Regal began sternly, but to his shock and surprise, a large, red tomato made contact with the side of his face. Little Sheena was standing there holding another; apparently she had broken into Regal's vegetable supply.

Regal narrowed his eyes. This means war! He thought savagely, seizing some baby carrots and aiming them at Sheena like she was a dartboard.

"Well, it looks like its time to head back to the boat," Kratos said, thoroughly worn out. Presea had turned out to be a nightmare when he tried to teach her the back crawl. He was feeling as though he'd had a dosage of little, obnoxious kids that would last him a lifetime (and that's saying something, seeing that Kratos was over 4,000 years old).

"True," Lloyd said, glancing at his watch, which read 12:30, "Come on." They all trudged back to the boat through the knee-deep water. With not much difficulty, seeing that the children were all tired out, they all got onto the boat and sat down to eat lunch, which they guessed was going to be some good stew that Regal cooked for them, or something.

But the sad truth was that Regal had not made them hot stew, or anything for lunch at that. Instead, the swimmers watched, half exasperated half amused, as big Regal and little Sheena had a full fledged food fight on the deck.

"Take this!" Little Sheena roared, holding a slingshot like a machine gun and fitting an apple in it. Regal dove behind a beach chair just as the apple exploded.

"RETREAT!" Regal yelled to no one in particular. Then he got up and began to run at top speed towards the kitchen, probably to get more 'ammo.' He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Lloyd, Colette, Kratos, Raine and younger Kratos laughing, fit to burst, pointing at him.

"Re…treat!" Lloyd gasped with laughter, imitating Regal running towards the kitchen. Kratos actually found himself wiping tears from his eyes.

"I haven't laughed that much in years," he said, still laughing. His son punched his shoulder jokingly.

"You seriously have to get out more," He said.

Lunch was a meager bologna and cheese sandwich for Kratos, who was exhausted from watching tiny Presea all morning. He then settled down on the deck with a thick book called Origin of the Elves: The secrets of Derris Kharlan. He fell asleep halfway through the third chapter, however, most likely from exhaustion, but it just might have been because the book was boring.

"Dinner!" Genis shouted from the round, folding table, which had been brought out. Kratos woke up and slumped over to the table where he took his usual seat between Colette and little Genis, who had a habit of sticking whatever food he didn't like into Kratos' napkin.

"…And we thank the Goddess for wonderful food and wonderful family," Colette said, finishing the prayer. With that said everyone dove into the large, roasted chicken, which Genis and Regal had cooked to make up for the sad little lunch they had.

Kratos was looking forward to sleeping in his bed (he'd gotten used to the fact that there were plaid curtains surrounding him on all sides) and was very sleepy when he entered his room. However, he jumped when he saw Simon the cat curled up on his pillow, his ginger tail twitching slightly. Kratos sighed, knowing that there was no getting rid of the cat.

"Fine, you can sleep on my bed, but you can't sleep on my pillow, Kratos said, getting into the bed and pulling the covers over his shoulder. Simon hissed slightly when Kratos put his head on the pillow, but did not attack. Instead he stood up and walked to the foot of the bed, where he curled up on Kratos' feet. Though he didn't like to think of the sneezing that he'd be addled with all night, Kratos did like the warmth on his toes.

"Night, Simon," He muttered quietly.

**Sari: So, it's me doing reveiw replies, even though I didn't write this chapter. So, I come back from ONE DAY away, and I was swamped in reveiws! Which made me very happy, of course. Thank you. You all get a cookie each. And a hug, if you're so inclined.**

**Suzu Fujibayashi- On the internet, everyone should get a cookie! Teletubbies? Yikes... That's a scary thought. They aren't married... Yet... –evil laugh-**

**Lugiamania- Yes... They do... Heh.**

**Sakura Irving- Mm, yes, they are lacking in the creativity, hmm? It's also for the chaos...**

**Mez10000- TEN TIMES? –huge eyes- and I just beat it my first time... Yes, I go mental with just my little cousins. I don't work with little kids well.**

**Aldia- It's fun to read? Cool! I had no idea! Um, sorry. Thanks!  
**

**Sari: So, take your cookies, and have a nice time until the next update! Which should be soon... We usually manage around... two a day? Not today, though, thunder and lightening. Thanks for favorites/alerts/whatever. Chao-for-now!**


	5. Day Five l Food and Bath Fights

**Sari: Day five. Oh my.  
Moo: ...****  
Sari: What'll happen?****  
Moo: ... You should know. You're writing it.****  
Sari: Well, I don't.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Namco, I wouldn't be doing this, would I?**

**Warnings: None that I know of.**

Kratos woke up with a nosefull of cat. He immediatly started sneezing, making Simon extremely angry and Genis cackle gleefully.

"What?" Kratos moaned, yawning.

Genis had left the room, cackling, and as soon as Kratos sat up, a slightly rotten bananna went hurtling at his head. He ducked, which made the bananna hit the curtains with a loud _splat_.

"No fair! Lemme get dressed!" Kratos sighed, burrowing under the covers to keep himself safe from the rain of fruits and vegetables. When his small attackers had finally gave up, he shut the door and locked it, got dressed, and grabbed his sword and sheild.

A loud knock sounded on the door. "Dad? Can I come in?"  
"Sure..." Kratos said, adjusting one of his belts. "C'mon in."

"Ah! Phew!" Lloyd said, darting into the room and holding his own swords up in a defensive position, catching a muffin in them.

"We need you!" Kratos found his son hugging him and pretending to weep.

"Huh?" Was Kratos' very confused answer.

"Raine is leading the kids in an attack!"

Kratos shuddered. "I thought Raine was a bit mature for food fights..."

"Well, she is the most mature two year old girl I've ever met," Lloyd thought out loud, "But she is a kid, so she would do food fights. Kratos obviously finds himself too old for it, and says he's a mercenary. And we need you!"

"Oh, alright," Kratos said, surprised he was going to participate in something quite as juvenile as a food fight.

"Hiya!" Sheena yelled, slicing a fruit in half with a card. Zelos was sheilding himself and occassionally chopping up the occasional carrot.

"This has gotten out of hand..." Regal sighed. He, admittedly, _had_ started the whole concept, but so many rotten tomatoes was lunacy.

All of a sudden, all of the attacks slowed to a stop as all of the little ones yelled "Gampy! Gampy!"

"Um, yes, it's me," Kratos said awkwardly, trying his best not to trip and fall with seven small children on his legs.

"Gampy!" Presea squealed, being the adorable little four year old she was. Kratos smiled.

Murray, Simon, and Noishe were all enjoying the various food splatters on the floor.

The rest of the day mainly consisted of cleaning. Lunch for Kratos was a fish sandwich, which Simon shared with him. Kratos was finally getting used to sneezing every time the cat was around. The cat actually sort of considered him his friend, or at least, the sort of friends cats have.

When Colette ran upstairs with a kitty-littered Presea, it was bathtime.

To put it simply, it took every adult there plus Kratos the younger to hold Presea in a bathtub long enough for Colette to scrub her. When bathtime was finally over after a total of two hours, Presea was about to go dump kitty litter on her head again. Luckily, Kratos had anticipated this and moved the kitty litter to a shelf, where only Simon or an adult would be able to get to it.

Dinner wasn't a fancy affair, and everyone went to bed early after an exciting day of food fights, clean-up, and Presea.

**Sari: Sorry it's so short!  
Moo: So I'll do an extra long one next time. Which should be... soon.  
Sari: -beams- Reveiw replies!**

**Kaolla asakura – Ah, yes, it is good none of them are like little siblings. It's exhausting. Do you get a lot of greif about _everything_ as well?**

**Ravenghost – I like your name! It's cool! Now, now, no murder on board the ship. Even though I would probably do the same...**

**Yukashi Tenshi - -pats on the head- Don't worry, it'll be all alright... eventually. Hmm, you have fictional character issues too?**

**Sakura Irving – Yes, watch out for Bubbles wherever you're swimming. Actually, don't. And... hmm... the "foo-wee". It sounds like flower. But I have _no _idea what Moo was thinking when she wrote that.**

**Aldia – Yes, it is amusing, isn't it?**

**Suza Fujibayashi – Yes! I love the way you said chibi Sheena. Never thought of it that way. Blue and pink curtains? That could actually look normal! Unlike my awe-inspiring plaid shoes... yes, I seriously have them, and wear them. Ah, at the time I got the reveiw e-mail, you SHOULD be tired.**


	6. Day Six l Traffic Light

**Moo: Sari made me do it you know, the evil thing about Zelos and…shudder****  
Sari: There, there Moo, I know I made you do it… but it's all for the best you know!  
Sheena: You sickos.  
Moo: -sob-**

**Disclaimer: ... Nope, I don't own Namco.**

**Warnings: Sheelos – It's not just implied anymore! A teeny Kratos spoiler if you haven't gone to the Tower of Salvation on dragon-back yet.**

The whole boat was silent, even the children refrained from speaking. Instead, everyone was crowded around younger Kratos' bed, waiting for him to wake up. Balanced in Colette's hands was a huge, three-layer cake, iced clumsily by the little ones. On the top it said 'Happy Birthday Kratos!' in bright pink icing, something that didn't seem very Kratos-ish at all.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Everyone shouted as Kratos feebly opened one eye. He jumped half a foot in the air (as did Simon, who was also dosing on his bed) and jumped to his feet. Seeing that he always slept in his clothes (cargo pants, some famous band's t-shirt) no one saw anything that they shouldn't have been seeing.

"…Wow," He said, staring at everyone crammed into his bedroom. He hadn't expected anyone to care that much about his birthday… even he had not gone as far as hoping for a cake. Tiny Regal crawled onto Kratos' bed and happily placed a lurid green party hat on his head. Normally placing any kind of hat on Kratos' head was taboo, but he was feeling uncharacteristically happy today, so instead of pouting, he grinned at everyone.

"Thanks! Well, I know you've probably been waiting to eat that for some time…" He looked ardently at the cake. Little Zelos, who seemed to have been containing himself beyond his normal measures squealed with glee and without further ado plunged his head into the cake. Colette sighed exasperatedly as pink frosting splattered her face.

"Zelos, your mom doesn't like it when you do that," his older namesake said, prying the child off of the cake. He then took his finger a wiped it across the child's cheek and sucked on it thoughtfully.

"This is good cake," He said, grinning. Older Sheena sighed and shook her head.

"Hypocrite," She muttered under her breath.

For breakfast they all ate large portions of the squished cake. It nearly turned into another food fight fiasco, but they ran out of cake before the throwing became serious.

Kratos, to his displeasure, was stuck doing the dishes with Zelos, who had a habit of humming old romance songs under his breath. Well, they'd never really taken to each other, but Kratos guessed they could have a normal conversation…

"So, how're things going with you? Still got you're –er– mansion in Meltokio?" Kratos asked, scraping some candle-wax off of a plate. Zelos picked some scum out of his fingernails before answering.

"Yeah, but I kind of got sick of whole damn city, you know, some people just won't accept half-elves, and my neighbors are some of them," Zelos said, annoyed, "I just needed to get away from it all for a while. Well, floating around on a boat seemed like the perfect get away." Kratos stood in silence for a moment, thinking. Zelos really was a thoughtful person, once you got him speaking with his heart, instead of his fake cover-up.

"I know what you mean, people being stereotypical, I saw a lot of it back in the war…" Kratos said, coaxing Zelos further. He pretended to be scrubbing some frosting off of a coffee mug (though he had not the slightest inkling on how it got there.)

"Well, it doesn't take a genius to figure it out, but me and Sheena have been thinking about getting married for some time, so we decided to just go on the boat together, you know, see our old friends for a bit," Zelos said, staring at a floating piece of broccoli as it bobbed around in the sink.

"Mmm," Kratos said, letting Zelos know that he was still listening. Zelos smiled, lost in thought and then said congenially:

"I was thinking about asking her tonight." Kratos hid his surprise quickly, not wanting Zelos to feel like he was making fun of him. Kratos waited for Zelos to say something, but his silence was in vain. Zelos turned back towards the dishes and was now scrubbing at a stubborn piece of hardened cheese.

Sometimes it was difficult for Kratos (or people in general) to tell whether Zelos was pretending or not, seeing that he was an impeccable actor. After all, he had succeeded in fooling his friends for many months until they figured out his 'true' motive for helping them.

"Well, I think I hear little Genis calling me," Kratos said, knowing it sounded awkward. He walked over to Genis, who was, in truth, looking around for someone anxiously.

"What's the matter?" Kratos asked, trying to sound kindly. Little Genis' face changed from worried to joyous in a matter of half a second. He seized Kratos' arm (which was about level with Genis' head) and dragged him over to the bow of the boat, where the smaller versions of Zelos, Presea, Raine and Sheena were all gathered, looking excited. Kratos tried not to look worried.

"We're playing red-light-green-light," Raine explained rapidly, "You see, we were one person short, so we were looking around for our older brother when we saw you! You'll do just fine, Gampy. Do you know how to play?" Kratos was quiet for what seemed to be about one minute. He was simply stunned about how advanced this two-year-old's talking abilities were. They might even surpass an unintelligent adult's… maybe Lloyd's.

"Er, I'm familiar with the rules," Kratos said, trying to sound smart even though he had no idea what red-light-green-light was, "But, er, could you, perhaps, refresh my memory?" Raine looked at him with a look that matched the professor's nearly to perfection, then quickly explained the rules. Once they had elected the Trafficker (Zelos) he turned around and began to hum a song that sounded unnervingly like the tune Martel used to play on her mouth organ.

Kratos and the kids crept up behind Zelos, who spun around suddenly. Kratos was caught mid-step, and was sent back to the beginning. The children looked simply overjoyed that they were beating their famous grandfather at something, and continued to play it rough.

Eventually, little Sheena snuck up on Zelos and took his place. They played a few more rounds of the game, during which Kratos (though he refused to admit it to the giggling grandchildren) was slaughtered.

After refusing another game of red-light-green-light, Kratos settled down in his day glow pink beach chair with half a peanut butter sandwich to satisfy his hunger until the soup was ready for dinner –he hadn't eaten a proper lunch, after all. Half way through chapter five of Origin of the Elves: The secrets of Derris Kharlan, little Raine wormed her way into Kratos' lap, belittling his rather thick book with an even thicker book titled Mythril: A Metal of Many Mysteries and Uses. Kratos gave an audible 'humph' as she settled imperiously on his chest.

"Do you understand all the information in that book?" Kratos asked, not quite sure if he wanted the answer. Raine didn't take her eyes from the page.

"Of course I do, or I wouldn't be pursuing its pages now, would I? But if you do not understand it, then I can certainly try and explain," She said to Kratos with a small hint of pride. Kratos smiled slyly at the child: it was all clear to him now. She just carried these books around to look smart; she couldn't really understand what it meant. He quickly slipped it away from her.

"Here, before you go and teach anyone else, you should make sure you have your stuff down," Kratos said, flipping idly through the pages. Raine made a snatch at it, but he pulled away.

"Lemme test you," he said, keeping his voice even. He wanted to see how she would answer the questions.

"Mythril is known as the most metal." Kratos recited the line from the book, leaving the word out. Little Raine sighed, and as though dealing with an obnoxious student, she swiftly hopped out of her grandfather's lap, seized the book and snapped it shut.

"For your information, Mythril is the most magical metal, often crafted into armor and weaponry because of its fabled strength. Mythril was most popular during the ancient Karlan war –you, of all people, should know this Gampy, honestly– because it is not only light, but also strong. However, due to the intense decline in mana, Mythril was difficult to find, and most people that formerly mined it gave up and began looking for more plentiful minerals to dig up. That is why today Mythril armor is prized and sold at a high price. Good day to you too, Gampy," Raine said, and gracefully toddled away, leaving Kratos gasping for air. He seriously needed to talk to Lloyd about sending that kid to a University when she came of age; no, not to learn there, but to teach there. Even he, who was over 2000 times her age, could probably learn a thing or two.

Dinner was uneventful (except for the fact that tiny Raine kept on reciting random facts about Mythril, just to prove she was smart) so afterward Kratos lay contented on his beach chair on the deck with all the other adults, watching as the pinkish-orange sky changed purple. Kratos had abandoned Origin of the Elves: The secrets of Derris Kharlan after the sixth chapter and had instead decided to hang with his old friend, Noishe, who was perfectly happy to have his ears scratched.

"You smell good," Lloyd said as Colette came to share his beach chair with him. She smiled happily.

"Well I shouldn't, because I just changed Simon's kitty litter," She told him. Lloyd groaned.

"Hey Sheena, can I talk to you for a second?" Zelos was standing a little while off at the back of the boat, leaning over the railing. Everyone raised their eyebrows at a blushing Sheena as she whisked past them. However, they all averted their eyes when she reached Zelos, knowing that it was something that they would regret interrupting. Only Kratos knew the true seriousness of what Zelos was going to do though, and briskly walked inside to the privacy of his bedroom. Surprisingly, the others followed his lead. Zelos and Sheena had the deck all to themselves, for the better or the worse.

"Come here, Sheena, there are some dolphins," Zelos called from the bow, pointing down at the water. Sure enough, there were some leaping porpoises squeaking and splashing around. Sheena laughed as one jumped high right in front of the boat. It was almost close enough to touch.

"They're so… beautiful," Sheena said, admiring the way their sleek bodies shone in the moonlight. Suddenly she spun around, feeling Zelos' hand on her waist.

"Not as beautiful as you," He said quietly, bringing her closer. She leaned forward and kissed him, her fingers sliding slowly through his hair.

They broke apart, and quietly Zelos said, "Will you marry me?" Sheena merely smiled, nodded her head, and kissed him again.

But during the time all this romance was going on above him, Kratos was serenely sleeping, having strange dreams about cats, birthdays and red lights.

**Sari: ...**  
**Moo: She made me do it!  
Sari: I just asked WHEN he would? But whatever. Reveiw replies! Which there is curenntly... one of.  
**

**Sakura Irving – Mm, I hope there isn't any bubbles wherever you're swimming... This chappie is nice alongish for you. You can guess all the odd chapters are short and the even ones are long. It's me and Moo's writing styles. She writes long and I write all short... which is why I double space and she never does... hmm, well, whatever. **


	7. Day Seven l Sybak

**Sari: Apparently, I am no longer allowed to answer your reveiws.  
Moo?****  
Sari: -swats her away- Never mind her. Now, If you would like me to reply to them (which _I_ like to do), then please ask me to reveiw and put your email adress on the reveiw. So I can... reply. I'll reply this time, though.****  
Moo: Gorgeous.****  
Sari: Now, hooray for Moo and Sheelos fluffies! And yay! I get to dump Regal off in Sybak!****  
Regal Fangirls: Oh no!****  
Sari: I don't really like him much. So he's gone for... twenty-three more chapters. -ducks tomatoes/knives/large fruits/ rotten vegetables- Sorry this chapter was so late. Writer's block, y'see.**

**Warnings: Nothing.**

**Disclaimer: Ooh, ooh, I don't own Tales of Symphonia.**

"Yahoo!"

Kratos blinked. For the first time a week, he had not been waken up at fivei n the morning. It appeared to be nine or so, and he wandered up to the decks, dressed in his rumpled clothes from yesterday (he hadn't bothered to change).

He was greeted by the sight of an extremely joyful Regal hugging everyone goodbye.

"Bye, Regal," he said, still half asleep.

"Goodbye!" Regal shot off like a bullet, and everyone blinked.

"Wow." Lloyd said, staring at the place where Regal used to be. "I wish I could go that fast."

"We're in Sybak! Daddy, I wanna go to a museum and a library and the university and..." Raine squealed, pulling on Lloyd's sword.

"Oh... Um, we might not-"

"Of course Raine can go! I'll go with her!" Raine said, drawing herself up to full height. She had a creepy, archeological-like glint in her eye, so Lloyd flinched and shooed them away.

"Ah, so, we're saved," Genis said, rubbing his eyes.

"Mm... Where are Sheena and Zelos?" Kratos asked.

"Ah, they're probably napping. They stayed up really late last night."

"Oh?" Was Kratos' reply.

"Ah, little Zelos was having trouble sleeping, so they hung out with him," Lloyd said, rubbing his eyes. "Noishe and Simon and Murray are due for the vet. How about _you_ help out with Simon, dad?"

Kratos sighed.

"Come _on_, Noishe!" Lloyd snarled, losing his patience as he pulled the huge "dog" along by a rope as Kratos walked along, his arms barely protected by his gloves.

They had learned that day that Noishe and Simon both hated vets. Colette was gently walking with Murray, who make that same funny clanking noise. It was because of the beads, which no one was able to get out.

"So... what is this again?" The vet asked, staring a Noishe with an odd expression on his face.

"I swear he's a... uh... dog." Lloyd said, grinning widely.

"Actually, he's a-" Kratos began, rolling his eyes before Genis clapped his hand over Kratos' mouth.

"He's a wolf!" Colette said, also grinning. "A... green wolf!"

The vet raised his eyebrows. "Um, sure..."

"The kids dyed him green," Lloyd said, sighing. "We just can't find a way to wash it off."

"Ah," the vet said, obviously not convinced.

Simon mewed and attempted to claw out of Kratos' arm, and Murray looked confused.

Colette just smiled. "Here, how about you check Murray out?" She patted the table that Murray was supposed to hop onto.

The dog looked at her blankly.

Finally, after a lot of heaving, Zelos and Lloyd managed to get the dog onto the table. The vet checked him over quickly. Then, after much coaxing, Murray came back down, obviously quie unnerved.

"Demon cat time!" Lloyd said happily, Kratos bracing himself against the aforementioned cat.

The vet's eyes became the size of platters. These people had a green and white dog. That cat could very well be a demon cat.

"Ah, um, I have another appointment!" He said quickly, running out of the room at roughly the same speed as Regal had a few hours earlier.

The offending human out of the room, Simon calmed down immediately, washing his face as if nothing had happened.

"Daddy, you killed Bubbles, right?" Zelos asked Lloyd, his eyes watering as he sucked on his finger, which had a small cut on it.

"Huh?" Lloyd asked, frowning slightly.

Zelos burst into tears, prompting Lloyd to pick him up and attempt to soothe him as a few college students stared at them.

"Do you know why that kid is so annoyed?" A blonde girl asked as her counterpart, a brunette, sat at their cafe table, scribbling on a piece of paper.

"Yes, I think so..." The brunette said, frowning at the paper. "Your turn."

Lloyd sighed, bouncing his screaming son on his knee.

"Bubbles can't hurt you. It's only a dream."

"RAINE SAID! RAINE SAID!" Zelos screeched, crying even more.

Lloyd sighed again and carried his son back to the ship.

"Wow, these ancient texts are amazing!" Little Raine squealed, poring over the complex runes that most college students didn't understand. This made most college students either stare at her or scream, drop their books, and run out of the library.

"Yes, I know!" Raine said, her eyes glazed over.

"I love this line about Martel!"

"Yes, I concur!"

"Raine?"

"Who is it?" Both Raines snapped, looking up at the intruder with the same murderous expressions on their faces. Kratos flinched.

"Lloyd's getting impatient. It's nearly nine o' clock, you see," Kratos explained. Raine looked outside.

"Oh, it is! We both were _lost_ in our texts!" She said, smiling.

"Angelic text?" Kratos asked, peeking over Raine's shoulder.

"No, old elfin." Little Raine informed him, shutting her book with a slam. "Did we miss dinner?"

"Yes." Kratos said, smiling at his grandaughter.

"Good. I'm not hungry. Gampy, will you carry me?"

Kratos smiled again and picked up the two year old, putting her on his shoulders and carrying her out.

"Your daughter is very intelligent." The librarian commented to Kratos.

"Oh, she's not my daughter. She's my grandaughter."

The librarian's eyes shot open. "You seem a bit... young."

"Ah, don't judge by appearances." Kratos said, wincing. "Ow! Raine, don't pull!"

"Gampy, I wanna go back! I'm tired!"

Kratos sighed and began walking back to the boat faster then ever.

"Ah, isn't this a nice, relaxing night?" Zelos sighed, smiling slightly. Sheena was on his lap, holding a can of soda and holding baby Zelos, who was barely awake. She was humming a Mizuho lullaby to the baby, whose eyes were closing slowly.

"Yeah, it's nice," Kratos said, his hands behind his head.

"You should know. Hey, how long have you been _on_ this boat?"

"A... week."

"Wow, you haven't died yet!"

"Why would he have died?" Sheena asked, frowning slightly.

"Ah, he could've commited suicide, or been strangled by the brats, or lost his mind and leaped off of the side of the boat, or..."

"Hey, the kids aren't THAT bad!" Lloyd complained, coming up from Raine's bedroom. "She wanted me to recite all the dwarven vows. She wants to memorize them."

"Ah, I'd be insane already. You were enough." Kratos said, closing his eyes and remembering Lloyd's many demands. "You asked a lot of questions."  
"Or he could have died from Raine's cooking, or been shocked into death by Raine the genius, or..."

**Ah, the last reply to reveiws... –sniff sniff- I think I'm gonna cry.**

**Mez10000 – Ah, I told Moo's friend she sounded like Sheena. She was really annoyed about it (she hates Sheena). Hmm, who doesn't like a little Sheelos? Your friend? –laughs maniacally-**

**XXxMysticalDreamerxXx – Kratos, grandfather... I dunno, I could see him warming up to them eventually.**

**Suzu Fujibayashi – Dfjaskfjwhaaats? No, Raine and Raine are equally smart. Maybe little Raine smarter. Good question, how Lloyd (IQ 2) and Colette (IQ 6 ½) had Raine (IQ three million, or something). I have noo idea. Er, sorry about how late this update is! I got my plaid shoes at Target, by the way...**

**Miss Raine Sage - Yes, they _do _take after their namesake. I'm sure little Regal will show amazing buisness skills sometime.**

**RavenGhost – Eep! –ducks tomato- Sorry! It was late! Hmm, it hurts you to think sometimes too? Cool!**

**Sari: Oh, by the way, I'm going to to some shameless advertising. Read my webcomic! The web adress shall be in my profile. If you read it, you get a cooky. If you reveiw, you get a cooky too. So if you do both – TWO COOKIES! And two cookies are better then one!**


	8. Day Eight l Tut, Tut, Zelos

**Moo: I do apologize for Sari's shameless advertising!  
Sari: It's good publicity, you know.****  
Moo: Cookie is spelled with 'ie', not 'y'.****  
Sari: In Sari-land, it's spelled with a 'y'. Oh yes, and by the way, I am the blonde college student in Day 7, and Moo is the brunette doodling on a piece of paper.****  
Moo: Tick-Tack-Toe.**

**Warnings: ... Zelos. This is rated "T" for a reason.**

**Disclaimer: -yawn- Dunownit.**

Their departure from Sybak was rather delayed, seeing that little Raine kept on trying to smuggle books out of the library. Lloyd always had to return them, much to the librarian's discomfort. She, apparently, did not understand how someone as stupid as Lloyd could have read all of these challenging history books, and refused to believe that they were nicked by a two-year-old.

"Ready to go?" Colette asked everyone happily as she, Sheena and Zelos sat on the deck playing blocks with little Presea and little Genis. Lloyd climbed aboard and (after everyone was thoroughly checked for stray library books) took the helm. They quickly sailed off into the big blue ocean, leaving the city of Sybak behind.

"Where's mini-Zelos?" Older Zelos asked, stacking blocks absent-mindedly on little Presea's head. Everyone shrugged.

"I'll go look for him downstairs," Lloyd said, handing the wheel to his oldest son, whom had Simon perched precariously on his shoulder almost like a parrot perched on a pirate. Lloyd disappeared below the deck for a moment, calling little Zelos' name. Suddenly they heard him shout, and say something angrily like "Where did you get that!" A few minutes later Lloyd carried little Zelos up from below. In Lloyd's other hand was a magazine.

"Zelos claimed he found this on the floor in the bathroom," Lloyd said, raising his eyebrows. He tossed the magazine to the older Zelos, who idly flipped through the pages and looked at the cover. He grinned naughtily.

"Oh, c'mon, it's just Playboy," He said in a would-be casual voice. Older Genis and older Presea burst out laughing, while Sheena and Raine scowled at him. Kratos began having a serious coughing attack, but Colette looked curious.

"I don't understand, what's a Playboy?" She asked cocking her head, "What kind of magazine is it? A fashion magazine?" This time everyone laughed (excusing little and big Raine, who scowled even more.) Colette looked a little put out.

"It's…" Lloyd said, attempting to explain to his wife, but failing miserably. Little Zelos, however, walked over to his mother and sat in her lap, nestling up against her.

"I don't know what any of the words said," He explained to Colette, "But there were lots of ladies that look like you when you're in the shower." He smiled up at Colette, who now had an extremely shocked look on her face. The boat was dead silent; everyone was trying hard not to laugh. Slowly, Colette turned to the older Zelos. It was very rare that Colette got angry, but when she did…

"Let me see that magazine," She said, putting little Zelos in Sheena's lap as she flipped through the pages. Her eyes grew wider and wider with each page.

"What's the point of this magazine?" She asked, tossing it back to Zelos, "It has no cooking tips, clothing tips, parenting tips! All it has is people without clothes on. Zelos, I can lend you some real magazines, you must be so bored of that one." Everyone, even the Raines, burst out laughing, but Colette was already immersed in a block tower with little Presea that she didn't even notice.

"I thought I told you to get rid of all of those!" Sheena snarled, dragging her fiancée down below where she could reprimand him without everyone watching. Lloyd smiled happily at the wincing Zelos ad they disappeared below.

"That's all settled," He said, happily sitting down next to Colette to stack blocks with their children.

The rest of the day was pretty boring for everyone, though Kratos did have some fun making lunch with little Genis, who ended up making a mean macaroni salad. From 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM, though, everyone snoozed on the deck, waiting for the sun to set. Lloyd and Colette dully played chess as everyone else slept. They could vaguely hear Zelos flipping through channels on the TV down below the deck. Lloyd took one of Colette's pawns.

"Did you seriously not understand why Zelos had that magazine?" He asked her. She thought for a while, and then killed off one of Lloyd's castles. He winced.

"Well," She said, blushing slightly, "I've always known he was a bit perverted… but I thought that I wouldn't embarrass him by screaming at him. After all, Zelos will be Zelos." Lloyd's bishop overtook her unsuspecting knight with ease.

"Yeah, Zelos will be Zelos," He repeated, then he said, "You're wise. I can't believe some of the things you do, like seeing the good in even the worst people, forgiving mistakes. You've been through so much, yet… you still can love the world." There was a silence where Colette moved her queen without taking one of Lloyd's pieces.

"Well, a lot of me felt as though I had to act and be that way on the Chosen journey, but after having Martel share my body with me for those brief minutes, I realized that she looked at the world with nothing more than love and desperate need in her heart, and her feelings… they kind of changed my outlook as well. I didn't only have to love the world, but I wanted to," She said as Lloyd checked her king. She sacrificed her queen for the king.

"I'm just glad we could save everyone, and bring everyone together into one world; Symphonia," Lloyd said after a long silence, "I can't really imagine just living in Sylverant, or just living in Tethe'alla. Without the other, it doesn't seem whole." He absent-mindedly moved his piece, giving Colette a perfect chance to checkmate his king. She did notice, but did not make the move, however, and moved a pawn pointlessly to the side.

"Yes, I know what you mean. This whole world is a miracle that I'm just happy to say I helped create. I would sacrifice myself for this world, for this peace," She said, watching a school of fish jump out of the water, their scales reflecting the sun like dazzling rainbows of light. Lloyd finally moved his knight and checkmated Colette's king.

"But because of us, no one is a sacrifice," He replied as they folded up the game board and put away the pieces. As he dumped the black pieces into their bag, Lloyd noticed something gray in the midst of them. He picked it up, and recognized it instantly as the snow bunny charm Colette had given him years before. It had even saved his life once.

"Look what I found," He said, holding the little porcelain figure out in his palm for her to see. Colette laughed and fingered it. There was a small nick in the center of its chest from the place where an arrow struck it. However, the little figure was still smiling, no matter how beat it was.

Both Lloyd and Colette looked happily down at the figure, and then at each other. Dropping the snow bunny, they embraced, just happy to be together and alive and free. Just happy that there was peace.

"Ahem," the older Genis was making very audible noises within his throat. It took Lloyd and Colette a minute before they realized that everyone had woken up, and they were all sitting around the table, ready to eat dinner. The two of them hastily got walked over to the others, where many people rolled eyes but no one commented.

"So," Colette said congenially, wiping a large green booger from little Sheena's nose like nothing happened, "What's for dinner?" Genis gestured to the center of the table where some perfectly sliced meat was stacked.

"Roast snowshoe hare, I bought some really good hare in Sybak," He said proudly as everyone dug in. Lloyd blanched, and quickly exchanged glances with Colette, who was helping her self to copious amounts of salad.

That night Kratos went to bed early, snuggling down into his sheets (which smelled as though Colette was trying to mix the laundry detergents together to save money the last time she washed them, but it wasn't working.)

"Avocados and petunias don't really mix well," he told Simon the cat, who seemed to be allergic to one of the two, because he kept sneezing. So the two of them fell asleep side-by-side, dreaming of dancing avocados and petunias, sneezing all the way.

**Sari: -looks around shiftily- You're still here, right? Read the webcomic!**


	9. Day Nine l Fever and Oatmeal

**Sari: Yay! Day nine!  
Moo: Wow! This is the fastest Sari will and ever has updated!****  
Sari: Eh heh heh...**

**Disclaimer: We're just rabid fangirls.**

**Warnings: None! **

"NO!"

"Huh?" Was Kratos' reply to his newest morning wake-up call, in the form of Colette yelling and the pitter-pattering of many little feet.

"Mommy wants wet towels for Sheena, mommy wants wet towels for Sheena," little Genis chanted to himself as he wet a large handful of washclothes in Kratos' bathroom. Baby Zelos could be heard shrieking "OH NO! BUBBLES HAS GIVEN HER RAINBOW INTOXIFOCO! SHE'S GOING TO CRYSTAFUNGITIS!" as he sprinted through the hallways, getting yelled at by Zelos ("Shut up, you little brat!")

Genis, his hands still soaking wet, decided to shake Kratos, dripping washclothes all over him, as he informed Kratos, "Sheena has a fever."

"Ah," Kratos said, annoyed that his clothes were wet (he hadn't bothered to change the night before) and smelled like petunias and avacados. "Go give those towels to your mom."

Genis nodded and ran to his mother, dripping water all over the floor.

Kratos grumbled for a while, for the first time in almost two weeks noticing the lurid pink and green curtains again, and mumbling they went very nicely with the smell of petunias and avacados that had made its way into the entire room. Simon was sneezing uncontrollably.

Finally Kratos decided to see if Sheena needed anything.

"Sheena? You okay?"

"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

Kratos shut the door quickly to keep himself safe from a the barrage of pillows before realizing he must have asked the wrong Sheena. He wandered to the nursery, finding himself in a pale blue room with yellow curtains, despite the lack of windows.

"Oh, dad, you're here. Can you go and get me three pieces of toast?" Lloyd asked, sighing as he attempted to feed Sheena some oatmeal. The toddler was outright refusing everything and was red in the face, screaming at the top of her lungs as Colette attempted to take her temperature, unable to stick the little earpeice into Sheena's ear.

"Sheena, honey, stay still," Lloyd attempted to reason, managing to get another glob of oatmeal on his shirt. When Kratos finally came down with three peices of slightly burnt toast, explaining he really didn't understand the toaster.

"Here, Colette," Lloyd said, stuffing a peice of toast into Colette's mouth as she struggled with the tiny child, unable to take her temperature.

Then Raine wandered in, pushing some of her blonde hair behind her ear and droning about how to cure a fever.

After two hours of droning, screaming, temperature-taking, and feeding oatmeal, Sheena managed to fall into a fitful sleep, allowing Lloyd to change his oatmeal encrusted clothing.

"Ah, this is awful!" Zelos moaned, examining his fingernails.

"Easy for you to say, you're not even doing anything," Genis grumbled, slamming a bowl of oatmeal down in front of the redhaired chosen.

"Hey! I hate oatmeal, brat!" Zelos whined, pushing the food away.

"Well, it's breakfast. If you don't want it, wait until lunch," Genis snapped, spooning some more oatmeal into a bowl. He was obviously extremely annoyed, slamming down oatmeal in front of everyone murderously.

"Why so mad?" the smaller Genis asked, slurping up some oatmeal and making himself an oatmeal mustache. "Is there something bad?"  
"I woke up at four o' clock," Genis grumbled, rubbing his eye as he spooned the last bowl of oatmeal – his own – into a bowl and began eating it, ignoring how hot it was. "I need coffee. But we ran out because Raine didn't bother to buy it in Sybak."

"She didn't?" Kratos asked, frowning. He would have sworn that he had seen some coffee.

"Well, she did, but I found it open, and I'm not risking it," Genis declared.

Lloyd spat a mouthful of coffee out. "What did the Professor do to it? It's terrible!"

Genis inspected the coffee. "Um, there's playdoh in there."

Everyone looked at little Raine, still immersed in her book on health.

"What?" she asked innocently, turning the page. "You should be happy. Pink playdoh is the best sort."

Lloyd looked murderous. "You put playdoh in my coffee?"  
"Yes. I thought you would be happy. Usually me and Regal share it all by ourselves. It's the best kind." She smiled happily. "It's the saltiest, you see. I love salt, but Sheena says it's gross." Raine sighed. "It says to cure a fever, you should let the sick person rest for as long as nessacery, or... see..." Raine began flipping the pages quickly, muttering.

"Muffins..." the younger Kratos sighed, eating a cold cupcake from some time or another, obviously half asleep.

"Ah, what luck," Raine said happily after a half an hour. "See! The page I was looking for was stuck in the front by someone... It says you can heal a fever with first aid."

Everyone stared at the toddler with their jaws down to the floor.

"What?" Lloyd whispered, fingering a clump of oatmeal in his hair.

"What?" Colette murmered, dropping the thermometer.

"What?" Genis said, dropping three dripping towels.

"RAINE!" All of them yelled in unison, waiting for the healer to come.

"First aid!" Raine said, making the small girl return to a normal color and return to a normal temperature.

"So that's done," Lloyd said happily, breathing out. "It's lunchtime, right?"

"I hope so," Zelos said, looking hungry. He had skipped breakfast.

"We're having linner," Genis said cheerily, not noticing his two friends' dismayed looks. "You'll have to wait several hours."

"BRAT!" Zelos screamed, beginning to chase Genis around the deck angrily, his fingers outstreached.

"Ah, prefectly normal chaos," Kratos commented to Simon the cat and Murray the dog, attempting to unbraid a dreadlock-like braid in the dog's long hair. "Prefectly normal chaos."

After several hours and one linner later, Kratos headed to bed early, deciding to skip the friends' customary wine and cheese after dark.

"A... Letter?" Yuan asked himself, staring at the pale pink envelope and shuddering slightly, nearly dropping it. It had lots of little fingerprints all over it.

_Dear Yuan,_

_We were wondering if you could come on our boat with us. We are sailing around the world. You can stay for however long you wish. Kratos is coming for a month._

_If so, meet us at the Thoda Geyser on the fifteenth._

_Love,_

_Colette, Lloyd, Kratos, Genis, presea, ZELOS, Raine, SHNA_

"Okay, I'll think about it," Yuan said, smiling at the line of signatures.

**Sari: Foreshadowing is good.  
Moo: ... –sweatdrop-**


	10. Day Ten l Bathtime

Sari: Read on! 

**Disclaimer: Don't own Namco, although if I did, I would have money... something I need...**

No. He would refuse this time. Nothing could make him do such a horrendous thing. Why, the more he thought about it, the worse it seemed. It was against his very soul, his philosophy of life. He would downright refuse to give baby Zelos a bath.

"Come on, won't you help me give Zelos a bath?" Lloyd and Colette's oldest son, Kratos, pleaded with his grandfather. The last time Kratos had given Zelos a bath, he ended up with a bright pink stain on his favorite shirt because Zelos threw some coagulated shampoo at him. His grandson had no chance of swaying him this time.

"You know I hate giving your siblings baths," Kratos reasoned with the teenager, "It's dangerous work, and I'm not doing it." The younger Kratos put on his darkest expression (something he had been perfecting for several years) and glared at his grandfather. He had a whole routine down, and it worked on almost everyone. First he unnerved them with his evil stare, then he twitched his lip dangerously. If that didn't get them, he would add in a low 'humph'. However, his grandfather still did not agree to bathe the murderous little Zelos, so younger Kratos was forced to try and sort things out by talking, something he despised.

"You fought in the Karlan war and were strong enough to be one of Mithos' companions," He grumbled, "Giving this three-year-old a bath should be trifle, correct?" That got his grandfather. The older Kratos looked annoyed.

"Fine," He said, looking angrily at the boy. He had let himself be swayed. He was stuck bathing the miniature monster.

And little Zelos was a monster. When he finally got in the bath (that took ten minutes because he was convinced 'Bubbles' was hiding in the faucet) he wanted to play with all the silver chains on the younger Kratos' black pants (that took ten more minutes to persuade him that he didn't really want the chains). Then he constantly asked what 'Salvation' meant (the younger Kratos kept on saying that it was his favorite band for at least ten minutes), and screamed loudly whenever they tried to wash him. Finally both Kratoses (thoroughly covered in soap that would take at least ten more minutes to scrub off) threw down in towel (literally) and walked from the bathroom, leaving the surly little toddler to dry his own self off.

Kratos walked into his room, where he made to take off his soapy clothes and throw them into his hamper. However, to his horror, little Zelos had somehow dried himself in the speed of light, ran into Kratos' room and flopped down on the bed where he avidly poured over the pages of one of his older namesake's magazines (Playboy). Kratos stared in horror at the little child, who was also garbed in Kratos' all-time favorite bathrobe, a bright red one with golden fringe that Anna had given him. Of course the bathrobe was about four feet too long for the child, and it draped over him like a throw rug.

"Hi Gampy!" Zelos exclaimed joyously. Kratos' eye twitched for a few moments, until he forcefully smiled back at the child.

"How 'bout you take off my robe, put on your own and go somewhere else… like Daddy and Mommy's room?" he asked almost threateningly. However, Zelos did not pick up on his grandfather's mood, and happily trotted out the room stark naked, leaving the bathrobe sadly crumpled on the floor. _He's got to be the weirdest kid I've ever met_, Kratos thought, looking stunned at the place where the kid had been moments before. _And that's including Lloyd._

The younger Kratos sat in his room, which was littered with old clothes and candy bar wrappers. Posters of gothic looking people were plastered everywhere across the wall, and his dresser was covered with shredded and crumpled paper with some faded pictures of Simon when he was a kitten. His sheets were tousled and his lampshade was askew, and when did that lava lamp last work? Three years ago? His room was the classic teenage boy disaster zone. But missing one thing.

There was no sign that anyone other than Kratos really stepped foot in that room. There were no letters from friends, gifts from friends, no pictures of friends. Well, the truth was that Kratos didn't really have any friends. When he was young and his family of three had started traveling, they would stay in ports longer and he would play with the other children his age. However, he never really got to see them again, traveling around the world on a boat wasn't a very normal life, and no sane parent was going to let their child sail around on a boat for a year with a slightly eccentric family without them. So Kratos really had no friends and had never had friends. But deep down, he really wanted friends. Friends that were like him, thought like him, acted like him. He would nearly kill for friends. And that's why he nearly jumped for joy when his mother read aloud a letter from Yuan, who was supposed to meet them at the Thoda Geyser in a few days.

Dear Irvings,

Thank you for the kind invitation to spend a month on your boat. However, I am only available for a short while, and I've decided that I can only really stay a week. You may drop me off at Izoold.

I am currently sheltering a thirteen-year-old girl at my house. I know this sounds kind of unusual for me, but I felt sorry for her because she was living alone on the streets of Meltokio, and her parents were killed exsphere victims, and she needed a place to stay. So I've taken her in (though it's only temporary until the orphanage finds a good permanent home for her). I cannot leave her when I come to stay on the boat with you, so I will bring her, if it isn't too much of a hassle. I will try and make her be cooperative, though she can be stubborn sometimes (teenagers).

Well, have a good sail up to Thoda Geyser, where I hope to see you.

Yours truly,

Yuan

Colette looked brightly at everyone.

"This is wonderful! Yuan is coming, and he's bringing a girl that he is…" Colette checked the letter for the phrase, "Currently sheltering!" Kratos wasn't sure if Colette knew what 'currently sheltering' meant, but if one million kids came walking onto the boat, Kratos would bet his sword that Colette would take them all in with a smile.

That night, dinner was some tasteless noodles with a very thick cream sauce. Kratos guessed that it wasn't up to it's usual standard because Sheena was cooking; she said that she didn't know how to cook anything but Miso soup, which they had had for lunch. The friends ate the noodles without complaint though; they weren't that hungry anyway.

The older Kratos was still happy even though the dinner was rather bland. His companion, Yuan, was coming on the boat shortly! Someone like him, someone to share his suffering! Someone that could be frightened of little kids with him! He waited for the day that Yuan came with glee.

The younger Kratos was also delighted about Yuan coming, though not for the same reason. A teenager his age was coming! He could talk to them about teenager stuff, listen to music, and rant about how annoying the little kids were! He could be himself at last! He walked into his bedroom and fell onto his bed happily without bothering to undress.

So both Kratoses fell asleep with happiness in their hearts. And next door, Lloyd was fighting a dangerous war with little Zelos, trying to force some pajama pants on his stubbornly naked body.

Sari: Yay! YUAN! –glomps Yuan- 

**Moo: ...**


	11. Day Eleven l Igpay Atinlay!

**Sari: Eh... heh... heh...  
Moo: -holding frying pan- Will you write _now_?  
Sari: Okay, okay! –to a random fan- Yelling "Die" in my face will not help.****  
Moo: Okay, write write write.  
Sari: Yessir! I mean ma'am!****  
-A random picture of milk being poured on a coyote is shown here, for your enjoyment-  
Announcer: ... Today is brought to you by a bunch of musicians Moo hates and Sari singing strange music in front of a place for religious gatherings while planting daffodils.  
Moo: It happened, seriously!**

**Warnings: Learn to speak Pig Latin, my friends.**

**Disclaimer: We do not own it, beacuse if we didn't, Lloyd would not flirt so shamelessly with Colette. Or maybe he would. It would depend on our moods.**

The morning was lovely. Very lovely. Kratos, for the first time in months, had gotten enough sleep.

It was a miracle. He knew it.

Opening one eye, Kratos saw a large number of small children standing silently and patiently in front of him.

"Ood-gay orning-may, ampy-gay!" They all chorused.

"Huh?"

"Ampy-gay is-ay ired-tay," Raine said quickly. "E-hay ants-way ome-say eace-pay."

"What?" Kratos asked, staring at them as they shuffled out of the door. "This is just getting creepy," he said to Simon, who yawned very widely and flicked an ear.

"I-ay ike-lay eggs-ay," Genis said, apparently in deep argument with Kratos the junior.

"Would you just stop it?" Kratos shreiked, plugging his ears.

"Ut-bay, ou-yay aid-say it-ay as-way peak-say ig-pay atin-lay ay-day!"

"I take it all back!"

"Why are they speaking in gibberish?" Kratos the elder asked vaguely, jamming some toast with jam on it into his mouth and promptly spitting it out. "I hate grape!"

"It-ay is-ay ot-nay ibberish-gay!" Raine sqeaked, jamming the toast that had been previously in Kratos' mouth.

"Oh, that's nasty on so many levels." Kratos said, wrinkling his nose.

"HE'S-SAY OING-GAY O-TAY ET-GAY RYSTAFUNGINITIS... cay!" Zelos screeched, managing to make everyone clap their hands over their ears.

"I-ay on't-day ee-say hat-tay in-ay y-my ook-bay," Raine said vaguely, flipping through the book she was reading from the ninth day. "Ow-hay o-day ou-yay pell-say hat-tay?"  
"Why are they speaking in gibberish?" Kratos asked Presea, who had wandered in holding a strawberry-garnished yogurt. "And why do you get a special breakfast?"

"Spe... cial? Oh, you mean the yogurt. Genis made it for me." Presea said emotionlessly. "They are not speaking gibberish. They are speaking a fairly basic language created for small children, Pig Latin..."

"Pig... latin." Kratos thought about it for a second. "So it's latin that pigs enjoy speaking?"

"Who knows," Kratos the junior answered.

"But... I don't know it." Kratos said vaguely.

"YOU WHAT?" Kratos shreiked, standing up and knocking over several bowls. "EVERYONE KNOWS HOW TO SPEAK PIG LATIN!"  
"Um... apparently Kratos doesn't." Presea said. "I have slight memories of speaking it with Alicia when we were younger..."

"This is a long, long day," mumbled Raine. "And it's barely even started."

Usually Raine didn't mind the children, even played their games with them, but Raine was an adult, and adults hate pig latin or any other strange language. Most can understand it, but many lose the ability to _speak_ them at some point.

"Yes, I agree," Kratos mumbled, attempting to ignore a wailing Regal in the background who apparantly couldn't figure out how to speak Pig Latin. As the baby hiccupped but kept silent (because the children had apparently made a pact to speak only Pig Latin all day), Colette attempted to soothe him.

"It's okay, it's okay," she said, doing her best but only getting fresh screams out of the tiny child.

"Pig Latin is the most annoying language in creation..." Raine added, her eyelids drooping.

"Yes, I agree." Kratos said, nodding.

"No, Ubbie-dubbie is." Kratos the younger said, flopping into a deck chair like a ragdoll. Kratos the senior admired this for a few seconds, then asked...

"What's ubbie-dubbie?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know," Raine moaned. "During the month when you weren't here, they spoke ubbie-dubbie for one day straight. I never thought it would be more impossible to understand. Ub ub ub ub..."

"Ubbie-dubbie? Let's count our blessings," Colette said, putting the baby down and letting him toddle away. "None of us speak it very well but Lloyd, so he was the only one who understood them."

"It makes me wish I were born later, because none of these idiotic languages were invented when I was born, and I never learned them," Kratos said, hanging his head in his hands.

"Ommy-may! Enis-gay as-hay my-ay ook-bay and-ay on't-way ive-gay it-ay ack-bay!" whined Raine, tugging on Colette's shirt.

"I won't help you unless you stop speaking Pig Latin," Colette said, looking determined.

"Ommy-may, I-ay ROMISED-pay hat-tay I-ay ouldn't-way top-say peaking-say ig-pay atin-lay!"

"You have to or else I won't help get your book back," Colette said, frowning. It wasn't a good face for the angel. She looked a little odd doing so.

"Ut-bay, ut-bay, ut-bay..." the little girl whimpered, making huge puppy-dog eyes. Colette shuddered, trying to resist, and managed to, but barely.

"No. You have to stop speaking Pig Latin." Colette said sternly. Raine left, sniffling.

"This is horrible," Lloyd moaned, massaging his temples. "I think I need a drink."

"I think _everyone_ needs a drink," Raine said, looking around at everyone.

A beer and a bowl of corn chips later, Kratos was plugging his ears and humming a very old hymn to try and keep the children from getting on his nerves more then they already were/

"Martel," Raine muttered, dunking a corn chip in extra-spicy salsa, "Please grant me every drop of patience in the entire universe. Please."

"Same for me," Colette added. "And also, let's have them not speak languages all day when Yuan comes."

"An idea I support," Kratos said loudly, humming louder as the children ran by shrieking in Pig Latin. "I support it very strongly. A petition, perhaps?"

"No, too many brats," Kratos the younger said. "Far too many. I think we should throw them overboard."

Colette and Lloyd shuddered, and everyone else went silent, not because they were upset by this comment, but because for the most part they were all imagining gruesome ways of killing whoever invented Pig Latin.

"It's time for bed!" Colette chirruped at seven o' clock. After a meal of slightly charred meatballs and spaghetti, the adults had voted on an early bedtime. A super early bedtime.

"It's-ay only-ay even-say o-say lock-cay!" Raine whined as Colette pushed them down the hallway.

"You're all tired." Kratos siad from his doorway, blaringly loud rock music issuing from inside. "It'll do you good."

"Ommy-may!" Genis whined, tugging on Colette's dress. The angel ignored him and pulled him down the hall the rest of the way, shutting him inside the bedroom.

Kratos had already shut himself inside of his bedroom, and, finding Simon asleep on his pillow (as always) he mumbled good-night to the cat and collapsed into bed, praying to everything he knew of to please make the kids shut up tomorrow.

**Sari: That's all you're gettin' out of me. It's about four hundred words short, but I'm out.  
Moo: -brandishing frying pan- Good enough, you updated. Read and review, please! It's the fastest way to update!  
–crappy music plays-**


	12. Day Twelve l Birdies, Knives, and Money

**Sari: Holy crap! Two updates in a row!  
Moo: (direct quote) You can stall with your updates, but not with mine.  
Sari: Aww...**

**Warnings: I think there may be a bad word. And LOTS of spoilers.**

**Disclaimer: Can I have Tales of Symphonia for Christmas, Santa?  
Santa: No, you madwoman.**

"WAKE UP EVERYBODY!" The unmistakable cry of Zelos rang unpleasantly through Kratos' ears. The three year old was running barefoot through the halls, screaming at the top of his lungs and pounding on people's doors. Quite a few of the adults were still angry with the younger half of the crew after yesterday's language fiasco.

"I know that we shouldn't have put them to bed at seven. They've gotten at least ten hours of sleep now," groaned the older Genis hoarsely, his hair sticking up in odd angles. Lloyd and Colette emerged from their room; Colette was attempting to stick a bottle in baby Dirk's mouth (but he protested furiously) and Lloyd quickly picked Zelos up and put a hand over the toddler's mouth.

"Why are you screaming?" Raine asked madly, her eyes bloodshot and her hair frazzled. She was asking the older Zelos; obviously mistaking the younger one's cries for the older one's. The older Sheena snorted in laughter as Zelos gaped at Raine, astonished that anyone could compare his 'perfect' voice with the banshee-like howls of a three year old.

Breakfast was actually quite nice; Genis fried some eggs and cooked some sausage, and after chopping it all into tiny pieces he wrapped it up and turned it into a giant omelet that everyone guzzled the second Genis put the plate on the table.

After breakfast, however, all the adults seemed to have run out of energy (none of them had slept well last night, mostly due to the fact that they still had squeaky voices talking in gibberish echoing through their heads for hours after their retired to their rooms).

"So… Yuan's coming in four days," Colette snored into Lloyd's shoulder. He nodded, though he was already snoozing in one of the day glow beach chairs and was just shifting in his sleep. As the adults crashed in the beach chairs (some of them didn't even make it to the chairs and just collapsed on the deck) the children ran around the boat for another three and a half hours, wreaking awful havoc in the kitchens ("Wow, big knife!") and tearing up their beds with giant pillow fights ("Feathers! Maybe there's a birdie in my pillow!") By the time the adults woke up, it was nearly four o' clock. Miraculously, the children had tired themselves out when they were running around and to everyone's delight, they'd fallen asleep in a huge pile downstairs in their room. Avoiding all the squeaky floorboards, Lloyd snuck down to their room and locked the door. All of the adults did a happy dance while the younger Kratos watched them from his fishing post at the bow, his eyebrows raised.

"Who's up for a little round of poker?" Zelos asked, doing a bridge with the cards. All the adults eagerly crowded around the fold out table, and even the younger Kratos decided to join in.

There were a few complications, seeing that neither Presea nor Colette knew how to play.

"You pair up with Lloyd," Zelos told Colette. "And you, Presea, pair up with Genis. It's not very hard to understand, after watching a few rounds you'll get the hang of it."

Zelos was a master at poker. Having played most of his childhood away at those casinos in Altamira ("I'm the Chosen goddamit! Lemme in, who cares if I'm underage!" a miniaturized Zelos told the barman imperiously) he had beaten even the most seasoned players. Also, Zelos thought happily, I have the best poker face by far.

Raine may have been reluctant to play at first due to the fact that gambling was a shifty and rather dangerous game, but from years of reading every book imaginable, she'd acquired a sort of cunning that was crucial for poker players. In time, Raine had become a rather dangerous opponent in any sort of card game.

Genis, taught by Raine, was a fair player. However, it was very easy to tell what Genis' hand was like only because he shifted uncontrollably in his seat and sweated profusely when his hand was awful, and grinned like the mad hatter when he had luck on his side. So, even if Genis did win the round, he never won very much because everyone else was not to keen on betting lots when Genis' hand was obviously superior.

Lloyd, as Genis had once said, did not think. He only used his instinct. Sometimes, this came in handy. Lloyd always seemed to know what amount of money to bet, whether he was taking to big of a risk or whether he was not daring enough. However, some degree of thinking is required to be a poker master, and sadly, Lloyd was unable to do much of that.

"Alright," Zelos said as he shuffled the deck. After Raine cut it, they began to play.

Throughout the course of the game, the others watched Colette and Presea learn how to play. By the fourth round, it was clear that both of them were rather hopeless, but to two different extremes.

Colette, who always wanted to give, put in way to much money (much to Lloyd's exasperation, because it was his gald too) and felt bad when she won, because she was 'taking away' from the others.

Presea, the emotionless wonder, put in the least amount of chips as possible and didn't say a word throughout the entire game, even when she won some money.

"But at least she has a good poker face," Genis said halfheartedly as Presea raked in another twenty gald without the slightest change facial expression.

They ended the game. Zelos was plus a hundred or so, Lloyd was very irate and minus a fair amount of money that he refused to share with anyone except for Colette, who was the one that lost most of it.

"Well, I guess we'll be living off of macaroni for the next few months," grumbled Lloyd as Zelos 'accidentally' dropped a twenty-gald piece on Lloyd's boot. With a very nasty little chuckle Zelos skipped down to his room and deposited his money on his bed, leaving the door open so everyone could see his riches.

At six o' clock the kids woke up, hollering for their dinner. After shoveling some reheated spaghetti down their throats, Lloyd and Zelos literally threw the kids back into their bedroom and locked the door. From the outside, one could hear muffled shouts and tiny fists pounding on the door from the inside.

"But what if Bubbles comes with his rainbows and give me Crystafungitisus?" Zelos screeched hysterically from behind the door. Lloyd actually had to restrain Colette from charging in the room and comforting her children.

"He won't, Zelos, just take my word for it," the older Kratos assured his grandson through the keyhole.

The rest of the evening was spent lying in the bright pink beach chairs watching the sunset. When night finally fell, they watched the constallations twinkle far above their heads as an occasional comet streaked across the blackness. Every time there was a shooting star Colette and Sheena would ooh and ahh in unison.

"I just love nighttime," Colette said, snuggling up to Lloyd. A piece of her blonde hair tickled his nose and he sneezed audibly. Zelos cracked up silently and Lloyd scowled at him.

"Remember that time when you offered me that tea?" Colette yawned sleepily. "And you kept on trying to trick my by telling me it was hot and it was cold and it was hot and it was cold and it was hot…" Colette went on for about a minute and then stopped due to the fact that she had to yawn again. Lloyd nodded, his eyes closed.

"Yeah, but I only did that because I knew there was something wrong with you," he muttered.

"What was wrong?" Presea asked. Surprisingly, her voice had emotion; concern.

"Oh yeah," Lloyd recollected. " That was before we knew you. Well, Colette went through this thing called Toxicoso-"

"-Toxicosis," Kratos corrected him swiftly.

"Yeah, that," he replied. "Well, she did that and lost all of her senses…" Lloyd's voice trailed off; thinking of the soulless Colette frightened him slightly.

"She was undergoing the process of becoming an angel," Kratos explained from where Lloyd left off. Presea looked curiously at Kratos, Lloyd and Colette.

"When my body was… wrong, like Colette's, was I becoming an angel too?" she asked them, her eyes wide. Raine opened her mouth to explain that Presea's condition was completely separate from Angel Toxicosis when Kratos intervened.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," he replied. Presea looked slightly happier; the thought of being an almost-angel cheered her up. Raine raised her eyebrows at Kratos but said nothing. Little white lies…they were way less harsher than the truth.

Kratos lay in bed for a while, but he couldn't sleep. Many memories had been reawakened by their small (yet meaningful) talk about Angel Toxicosis. He remembered the war, sprouting wings…meeting Anna. It flooded back all too quickly, clouding his brain.

I thought that you got over all this the night you talked to Lloyd in Flanoir, Kratos' conscience told him. He frowned and got out of bed. Slowly he walked over to the mirror, a driftwood frame with pink seashells placed rather clumsily around the glass. Kratos guessed that Colette and the children had made it together.

His reflection looked back, just as it had for 4,000 years. The reddish-brown hair, the cold, guarded eyes and the pale skin, it was all the same. Why was it all the same? Because of Mithos, Kratos' conscience stated. Instinctively, Kratos looked at the back of his hand where his Crusix crystal was attached. Easily, he could remove it and within a second's time all those lost years would catch up with him… 4,000 years of lost aging…

"I'd be nothing but dust, Simon," Kratos told the cat as he tried to imagine aging 4,000 years all at once in Colette's avocado/ petunia-scented guestroom. Simon sneezed.

An easy way to commit suicide, Kratos found his conscience telling him (to his horror). Then, firmly, he shoved the idea from his mind and lay back down in bed. Right before he went to sleep, he found himself thinking: What are my reasons to commit suicide anyway? He used to have a few demons that would drive him to the edge but now, with his family and friends…

"Well, you might commit suicide because you're stuck on a boat with a million kids…" he told himself, but right then little Sheena chose to mutter in her sleep "My Gampy is better than your Gampy…" and all doubts were shoved out of Kratos' mind.

**Moo: Hurrah!  
Sari: It's so cuuuuute!****  
Moo: Reveiw!**


	13. Day Thirteen l Alektorophobia

**Sari: -ducks barrage of heavy objects- OKAY! I'm sorry! I'm a lazy butt, I'll admit it! I'll even offer excuses!**

**Excuse Numero Uno: I had to draw a Star Wars comic for my brother.**

**Excuse Number Two: I was forbidden to use the computer because I failed my Updating Quickly classes (oh, the irony)**

**Excuse Number Three: People really do live on Mars. I was there with my superintendant.**

**Excuse Number Four: I was playing Sims 2 far too much in an attempt to get my sims out of college.**

**So, the long long long long LONG awaited chapter thirteen.**

**Warnings: None but the usual spoilers! **

**Disclaimer: I once had a very demented dream I owned Tales of Symphonia, but that one goes with the Legend of Zelda valentine dream, which was demented also.**

Kratos woke up to Simon's tail in his face and Murray's nose lifting his comforters up, making a draft blow uncomfortably onto his toes. Kratos cursed and rolled himself up into his blankets again before falling back to sleep, having a dream about dancing petunias.

Kratos woke up to Raine standing over him, frowning at him at Simon stared at her moodily and the smaller Raine thumbed through a book that was about six inches thick.

"It would appear from the symptoms that his illness is the exact same one as Sheena's, however, the way that you are not able to heal him, Raine, signifies that this is a slightly differant type of fever, as shown by the reasearch of Sir James Tyott the sixth, but..." the smaller Raine said at a speed that Lloyd usually wouldn't be able to speak at.

"Mmm, yes, that would be the case." Raine said, grabbing a thermometer and sticking it in Kratos' ear a little too zealously.

"Ow! Watch it!" Kratos growled as the earpiece dug into his ear.

"Am I pushing too hard?" Raine said, pushing a little harder.

"You could push a little gentler!" Kratos snapped.

"Oh! Okay, I'll push better," Raine said, pushing with all her might and making the plastic ear cover dig even further into Kratos' ear.

When the new variety of torture had ended, Raine tutted. "One hundred one. Next ear!"

After more painful ear thermometer testings than Kratos thought possible, Raine and Raine both left to eat breakfast and Zelos came in bearing a bowl of chicken soup.

"So..." Zelos said, looking worried, "Do I have to spoon-feed you?"  
"NO." Kratos hissed, looking murderous.

Oh, if there was one thing Kratos truly hated, it was chicken soup. There were many reasons why he hated it, the first and most prominent being that Martel had loved making chicken soup and hadn't been much of a cook. Saying that she could cook nearly as well as Raine may have been a compliment. The other reason was that Mithos has usually killed the chickens, and had creative ways of doing so, usually ending up in the soup either spontaniously combusting or tasting strongly of dirt.

The third reason was that it had not always been chicken soup, but rather random-beast-we'll-call-chicken soup. Kratos had never had quite the same imagination as the others, so trying to pretend that clay golem soup was really chicken soup had failed miserably.

So, as soon as Zelos had left, Kratos had stared at the soup with a feeling of impending doom.

It did not matter if Genis had cooked the soup, or if the chickens were really chickens and had been killed a perfectly humane manner. All that mattered was Kratos and his alektorophobia when it came to soup.

Three hours later, Kratos was still staring at a bowl of chicken soup, although it was now cold.

Colette strode into the room.

"Kratos? Are you okay?"

"Fine, just fine," he moaned, sounding idiotically nasal and looking miserable.

"Are you hungry? Oh no, you don't have a stomach bug, do you? I don't need to get you a bucket, right?" Colette said, looking worried.

"No, I'm fine," Kratos said dismissively. "But I think I'd rather skip my lun-"

"FOOD IS IMPORTANT TO GET YOU WELL!" Colette shrieked, pinching his nose and beginning to dump the chicken soup down his throat.

The soup was cold and its slightly off-putting taste was amplified by Kratos' rememberings of electronic, flaming, dirt-filled soup. Buy the time the bowl of soup was done, he felt sincerely ill.

"I'm going to sleep now," Kratos mumbled, turning over on his flip-flopping stomach and falling to sleep instantly.

**Sari: Sorry, but I ran out of steam, so this chapter is cut slightly short. For those wondering, alektorophobia is the fear of chickens, so there's a new vocabulary owrd of the day. Chow, and thank you VERY much for not murdering me because of my lazy updating issues.**


	14. Day Fourteen l Tongue Splinters

**Moo: You all should be thanking me on bended knee, you know. Because I have written a nice, good length chapter for all of you filled with the good, slapstick humor you've been waiting to read for about… how many months?**

**Sari: Heh…**

**Moo: Ha. Feel guilty.**

**Disclaimer: Pshaw. I don't own it. If I did, I'd be at my giant pink mansion getting my toes and portrait painted by some guy in a wig and his nose stuck up at a snooty angle.**

"Whoa. Lemme get this straight. You asked Sheena to summon Undine so you could clean the deck quicker?" Lloyd's incredulous voice could be heard at six sharp that morning as he and Colette discussed the flood of water that had completely submerged the deck. According to the screaming babies and adults alike, Kratos guessed that the boat was on the verge of sinking. This was a great way to start off the day.

"Yes! I thought we should get the boat all nice and clean for Yuan's arrival, but now it's drenched and-" but Colette was to horrified to speak anymore, so she decided to sob into Lloyd's shoulder for a good ten minutes.

"I guess this means we should leave our room and go help bail the boat, Simon," Kratos said heavily to the cat. Simon gave him a look that clearly said: it's your funeral.

Kratos tentatively opened the door. All seemed quite dry beneath the deck. Then, all the sudden, baby Zelos came tearing out of one of the rooms, a good two dozen buckets on his head, feet, or hands. He then began placing them wildly about the hall, screaming something about the drips of water all containing "Bubbles' evil Crystafungitis."

Knowing that the worse was yet to come, Kratos walked across the hallway and opened the door to the above deck.

It all happened in about five seconds. First, Kratos was met face on with a huge, ten foot wave that knocked him right off his feet. Water flooded into the under-deck and five children began to wail piteously. Then, when he finally was able to walk up the stairs without any collisions, Kratos found himself on the deck with a good three and a half feet of water swirling around him. Sheena was standing in the corner, her head bowed over the side of the boat, screaming at the top of her lungs at what Kratos guessed was Undine in the water.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WON'T MAKE IT ALL EVAPORATE?" she screeched numerous times.

Murray the dog was slowly swimming through the water with Simon placed on his head. Apparently, they had not finished their food when the giant wave of water attacked the boat, and their kibble was floating along with other items such as hairbrushes, Barbie dolls and-

"Where did I put those Playboys?" the older Zelos kept muttering to himself as he fished through the debris.

Finally, after wolfing down some sodden pieces of toast, Kratos reluctantly grabbed a bucket and began helping Genis and Lloyd bail some of the boat. Their attempts were rather fruitless.

"I don't know what they were thinking!" Lloyd kept exclaiming to himself over and over again, while Genis uttered an unbroken prayer to the goddess Martel for the better part of half an hour.

However, the worst part of the flood was not floating kibble or soggy Playboys. It was Raine. The moment she had seen the water all around her, she had wailed even louder than baby Zelos. To make things even more complicated, she flung herself at the boat's mast and started shimmying up it like some sort of demented monkey.

"I'M NOT COMING DOWN THERE!" she screamed hysterically.

This whole time, the younger Kratos had been sitting way up in the half-broken crow's nest, a bemused expression on his face. It didn't get much better than this, adults running around trying to keep order, and small children changing into their bathing suits and treating it like a pool.

"Idiots," the younger Kratos said to himself, absorbed in some gothic novel filled with angst, depression and hate (his favorite subjects).

It was around two o' clock when the little Raine, who had been trying to talk her mother out of evaporating the water with a hairdryer ("It's our only hope!" shrieked Colette hysterically) came up with the idea that would save them many hours of bucket bailing.

"Just make Sheena summon the Sylph and make them evaporate the water with their wind power!" she said obviously to the group of adults, who now looked murderous.

Of course, her idea was perfect, and all the water had evaporated in no time. The only problem was, there were tons of salt crystals left behind.

"Yummy!" little Presea squealed as she licked it off the deck. She was joined by little Sheena and little Regal while their brother, Zelos, flapped his arms hysterically.

"It's the crystals of Crystafungitis!" he told them severely. "You all may die."

The day had been a long one, Kratos conceded. First, the huge wave, then the intense bailing, then the salt licking (all the kids had gotten splinters in their tongues and needed assistance on getting them out). Now would be a great time to just sleep…

But no, this was not the case. Instead, Colette rallied all the adults for one last major clean of the boat, which left everyone gasping for breath. By the time they had battled the children into their beds, Kratos was ready to sleep standing up.

"These have been the most sleepless two weeks of my life," Kratos said, trying to think of a time throughout all of his four thousand (and plus) years that he had ever felt like such an insomniac.

"Lloyd," Genis groaned. "How do you do it? Living with little Zelos for three weeks is enough to kill me, but three years…? You must be used to his nuttiness by now though, right?" But Lloyd was already snoring huge snot bubbles into Colette's apron. She sighed audibly.

"Living with the older Zelos isn't much better," Sheena put in. Zelos was reading a very soggy looking magazine that anyone could guess the name of.

"Hey," Colette said brightly. "Remember, Yuan is still coming tomorrow! This is so exciting!" Maybe Colette had forgotten about how Yuan had tried to kill them and kidnap Lloyd, but the others hadn't.

"Yuan… the man with that ring? He was in love with the sister of Mithos, Martel? He was a bad man, I thought," Presea said. She was painting her toenails the same shade as her hair, but was not very good at it. It looked more like she had coated both of her feet with bubblegum.

"Oh, he's a good guy," Colette brushed aside the comment. "And he's bringing the child that he is currently sheltering! He sent another letter. Her name is… uh… Zepphie or something of the sort."

At the sound of Yuan and the girl, both the older and younger Kratos perked up. Kratos was looking forward to seeing his old friend again, and his grandson couldn't help but wonder if maybe he would finally find a friend to share the pains of living on a boat with one million kids with.

Later that night, when Kratos was lying in bed, a glint of gold in the bookshelf next to his bed caught his eye. It was a very short bookshelf, with only about ten or so books on it. Kratos, unable to sleep, picked the golden book out and rifled through the pages.

It was a photo album from Lloyd and Colette's wedding, which had been held in Iselia. Most of the pictures were of Lloyd and Colette eating cake or dancing, but there were a few other ones, less professional looking, that had probably been taken by Genis or even himself. Right when he was about to close the album, his gaze lingered on the last picture. It was very messy, with lots of blurs and slightly lopsided. Apparently, whoever was taking the picture was trying to get a photo of Zelos catching the bouquet of flowers (something that still embarrassed him to this day), but they had missed and only gotten half of him. The other half was the crowd of people laughing and jostling about, but when Kratos squinted, he thought he saw the shadow of a woman sitting in a tree, her chocolate brown hair falling to her shoulders and laughter pouring from her mouth. She was neither transparent nor solid, it seemed, but Kratos still knew who she was.

"Anna," he muttered, running his fingers over the photo. Simon perked his ears at the sound of Kratos' voice.

"Maybe it's a sign, Simon," Kratos said in a philosophical way very unlike himself. "I think she's telling me to enjoy my family while I can…" The words sounded silly and kind of unexpected to Kratos even when he just muttered them to the cat lying on his feet. Shaking his head in amusement, Kratos closed the book, set it down, and gave himself to a petunia scented sleep.

**Sari: I see no slapstick humor...**


	15. Day Fifteen l Yuan Comes Aboard

**Sari: Good morning, all.**

**Moo: (grumpgrump)**

**Sari: Sooooo... I'm writing. And it's the moment you've all been waiting for.**

**Disclaimer: I owned it once, really. No, just kidding. I don't. Really.**

Kratos was awoken uncerimoniously by a loud blasting noise.

"Ooo!" a chorus of small voices chirped. "Aah!"

"And this is the place that can only be frozen for a..." Raine began droning, her older counterpart occasionally offering an explanation.

"We must be at Thoda Geyser," Kratos thought to himself, getting out of bed with a groan. Then he realized, with swelling joy, that Yuan was coming today! Oh, joy! Oh, thank Martel!

Kratos enthusiastically ran upstairs,completely forgetting he wasn't hearing his clothes (just his underwear). Zelos screamed girlishly and threw his hand across Genis' eyes in a dramatic gesture.

"Genis! Sheild your virgin eyes!"

"Hey! Let go of me!" Genis screeched, squirming and cursing while Kratos headed back downstairs in shame.

"Hello," Yuan said, shaking everyone's hand firmly. "Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello..."

After his hellos, which took up a long time, he turned to the teenage girl next to him, who looked disgruntled. "This is Zepphie."

Zepphie was plain, with brown hair and freckles, and brown eyes. She was tanned, her shorts were ripped, and her tee shirt was stained with something. Her flip-flops were, to say the least, old.

"Hi," she grumbled, crossing her arms uncomfortably.

"Hi! I think you need some breakfast!" Colette squealed, pulling the younger girl away.

"So you are?" Yuan said, kneeling down to get on the children's level. He was looking at Genis, who grinned.

"I'm Genis. I'm four."

"I'm Presea. I'm four too."

"I'm Zelos. I'm three."

"My name is Raine, and I am two years old."

"I'm Sheena. I'm two too."

"Regal. I'm ONE. I'll be two."

Dirk gurgled.

"And I'm Yuan." Yuan said, pointing to himself.

"How old are YOU?" Zelos asked, eyes wide.

"Me?" Yuan asked. "I'm over four thousand."

"Yuan." Raine said. "Uncle Yuan."

"Unk Yuie," Regal said. "Unk Yuie, Unk Yuie, play with me!"

"Okay," Yuan said with a smile.

Kratos regarded this all with horror.

As Yuan and baby Regal played patty cake, Kratos continued to watch with horror, and then Yuan and Raine got into a long, complicated, more in depth conversation about mythril and its various properties than Kratos could understand over lunch. The lunch in itself was a disgusting tuna salad sandwich, but Yuan took it down well, and was even able to drink his "play-doh improved" lemonade with a smile.

"You're so good with the kids," Colette had chirruped when she saw him, loading more tuna salad onto Zepphie's plate.

"I love them," Yuan beamed. His previous statement seemed to be true, seeing as Sheena was climbing all over him holding her "most favoritist purpley crayon" and Regal wouldn't stop pulling his blue hair.

"It's good to see you again," Kratos said, edging away from the purple-crayon holding menace and taking a huge bite of his sandwich.

"It's good to see you too. Of course it was hell getting off of Derris Kharlan seeing that nobody likes working with the passports..." Yuan began and went onto a tirade about how horrible passports in Welgaia were, as the angels were so slow and the passport photo takers liked to frighten small children (by accident of course, but this really bugged Yuan).

When Kratos was able to get a word in edgewise, it was nearly nightfall, and therefore dinner (fish in a cheese-and-nut sauce that made Kratos seriously question if it was safe to eat or not). Yuan continued to sit and rant about Welgaia, passport issues, and all manner of things including the fact that his new apartment had a bizarre black box in it that made his bones chill every time he wandered by it.

When Kratos finally headed down to bed, he caught a glimpse of his younger counterpart fishing at the bow and Zepphie sitting next to him.

**Sari: I'm being lazy. Sorry this is so short.**

**Moo: (grumble)**

**Sari: Never mind her. Reviewing is fun!**

**AS OF 3/20/06: I wrote more, because Moo wouldn't shut up.**

**Random fact of the day:**

**I can say "I'm a fridge" in French, "I'm a jelly donut" in German, and "Hello, Mr. Cat" in four differant languages – French, English, Spanish, and Japanese. Now, if I can find a way to make this HELPFUL...**


	16. Day Sixteen l Bubbles Revealed

**Sari: Voila. Knock yourselves out.**

He was standing in a forest, the thick canopy dappling the silvery light that the moon cast down onto the earth. But even if there had been less leaves overhead, the moon would not have shone much brighter because clouds obscured the sky.

Kratos knew he was dreaming, but he made no effort to wake. He knew this forest very well; it was Ymir forest, the place of mystic trees and flowers that surrounded the elf village, like a natural barrier. He slowly crouched down beside the water's edge and jumped onto a huge, fleshy lily pad that supported his weight with ease. Suddenly, Kratos saw something splash out the corner of his eye. He spun around instinctively, a hand on his sword, just ready to unsheathe it. However, nothing was there but a small fish swimming placidly, a small berry-like fruit balanced on its nose.

Kratos watched in mild interest as the fruit-bearing fish swam its way over to Kratos' lily pad, where it stopped. Then, it raised its head above the water and let the fruit roll right into Kratos' lap.

"I am Bubbles. This fruit is Crystafungitis, or Intoxicofo," the fish said in a voice that sounded unnervingly familiar to Kratos, gesturing towards the fruit. But this was all very confusing, because the voice belonged to someone that Kratos knew was dead.

Suddenly, the fish was no longer a fish, and the fruit was no longer a fruit. The fish had sprouted huge, ethereal looking wings, it's shining scales molding together into pale skin, and it's gills receding into nothingness. Before Kratos hovered Mithos Yggdrasil, his white boots barely brushing the surface of the water. And rolling about on Kratos' lap where the fruit had been was an exsphere, but it wasn't any normal exsphere. It had no key crest, and it was rainbow colored…

"I had a very bizarre dream," Kratos mumbled to himself at the breakfast table. No one seemed to notice except for little Zelos. He cocked his head, but did not look very pleased.

"Me too," he replied. "But mine was scary. B-Bubbles was in it!" He looked under his plate though making sure the horrible Bubbles was not skulking behind their fried eggs. Kratos suddenly dropped his fork. Bubbles!

"So did mine," he told his grandson in an undertone. "I was in a forest, and a fish told me his name was Bubbles." Zelos nodded so vigorously that Kratos feared the small child would get a crick in his neck.

"Uh-huh!" he squeaked. "Me too! And then… h-he turned into a man and tried to unleash his ball of INTOXICOFO ON ME!" The poor child was getting hysterical. Kratos attempted to calm him by stuffing his mouth with toast. It seemed to work, at least for the moment.

"Wow," he said. "That's what happened to me too!" Could he possibly be sharing weird dreams with this delusional three-year-old?

"Zelos, how long have you been having these dreams?" he asked casually.

"Uh… ever since the day before you got on our boat. My sister Raine readed a story in her book to me the day before about a mean old man named… uh… I can't remember. And he had evil guys that make everyone die with Intoxicofo and Crystafungitis. Raine called them angels, but I think she meant rainbow… I mean, what's an angel anyway? And then… uh… oh yeah! I couldn't remember the guy's name, so I checked Raine's book and the word kinda looked like the word 'Bubbles'… so I thinked his name is Bubbles. So then I started having funny dreams about the fish-man, Bubbles, and his rainbow balls of Intoxicofo–" Kratos held up a finger to silence him, looking at the child in astonishment. Never in his four thousand years had he ever met a child as insane as this one. But yet again, how could Zelos have such an intricate dream about exspheres and Mithos Yggdrasil with just some brief summary from his sister? And how, in Martel's name, could he, Kratos, have the same dream?

"Zelos…" Kratos began. "Have you ever had dreams about –er– other things that you've never seen before, kind of like this one?" He didn't want the child to become overexcited again. Zelos shrugged.

"I don't know. I've had dreams about a lot of stuff… I don't know whether they is real or not," Zelos replied nonchalantly, and then launched into one of his dreams where he, Zelos, was the king of Meltokio, was married to the most beautiful woman in the world (who, when he described her, sounded unnervingly like the older Sheena) and was slaying dragons left and right in the coliseum. Shaking his head with wonder, fright and amusement, Kratos excused himself from the table, leaving the possible insane, psychic child to rant on about things that could someday happen or already had.

What a strange world I live in, Kratos mused.

Zepphie opened her eyes, but did not immediately recognize her surroundings. The shades were pulled, but she could still tell she was lying on the floor in a sleeping bag. But Zepphie was used to lying on the floor, seeing that before Yuan had taken her in, she was lying in the streets of Meltokio with a garbage can for a pillow.

Slowly, she raised herself to a sitting position and looked around. There were posters of men with long hair and electric guitars that all had gothic clothing on. Beside her, elevated just enough that she couldn't determine who was sleeping in it, was a bed. She tried to lift her head a bit so she could see who was in it, but they had rolled to the complete other side, so her attempts were fruitless.

Suddenly, a cat padded over the dark wood floor and hissed in her face before jumping onto the bed. Zepphie was used to sharing the alleyways with the cats, and paid it no attention, though she eyed its claws, ready to duck under the sleeping bag if it pounced on her.

She got to her feet and stretched. So she was stuck on a boat for a week with Yuan, the slightly eccentric war veteran that saved her from being beaten to death by some rough guards when she attempted to steel some kirima from a vendor. Great.

Zepphie had grown up pretty much on her own, and had taught herself pretty much everything that she knew. And one of the key things for survival on the streets, Zepphie soon figured out, was being able to assess people accurately within the first few seconds of meeting them.

From what she had seen so far, there were the owners of the boat: Lloyd and Colette, who were married and the parents of all the insane, lunatic children running about. Colette was a klutz and acted clueless, but was not really as stupid as she looked. Lloyd, on the other hand, was stupider than he looked.

Zelos and Sheena, the engaged, were always bickering because of Zelos' little habit of reading playboys. Sheena acted annoyed all the time, but she still loved him, Zepphie could tell. Zelos, on the other hand, acted like a complete womanizer while really on the inside he was intelligent (or so she suspected, deep down inside all of that permed, red hair).

Presea never talked. She most likely had a traumatic past, Zepphie inferred. There was that book-smart kid though, Genis, who was absolutely nuts over her, though Zepphie didn't know exactly why, other than the fact he thought she was cute.

Raine, the professor, was completely engrossed in ancient texts most of the time. It was clear that reading and learning new things was her way to escape from hard things that maybe had happened to her in the past.

And then there was Kratos, that supposedly four thousand year old man who had fought along side Yuan. He was quiet, reserved, and slightly afraid of small children and chicken soup, which he found ten times more horrible than even the deadliest monsters of the Kharlan war.

That was what Zepphie could make of the adults. As for the children… they all looked the same and acted the same except for one… the older one. Kratos was his name. The night before, he had even invited her to sit next to her on the deck. He was quiet, and acted surly and sour most of the time. She suspected that he hadn't had many friends in the past, and felt awkward when around other teens. Well, that was something they had in common. He didn't know how to react to being around kids his age, while she didn't know how to treat people who were nice to her. And they were both stuck on the boat against their own will together; that counted as something.

Zepphie didn't bother changing out of her beat pair of shorts and her ragged old t-shirt. They were her only pair of clothes, after all. Instead, she silently crept up to the side of the bed where the sheets were all mounded together (because there was a person underneath) and peeled them back, peering in curiously. Kratos the teenager was snoring slightly, his reddish brown hair tousled.

Suddenly, she heard the small pattering of feet as one of the demonic children ran across the floor outside the room. Zepphie peaked around the doorframe to see a sandy-haired kid with a sheet tied around his neck running around.

"Hi!" squeaked baby Zelos, the sheet streaming out behind him. "I'm celebrating because Gampy told me that Bubbles is dead!" He went galloping off to the other end of the boat to spread the news, and Zepphie stood in the doorway, perplexed.

"Zelos, leave me be," Kratos groaned in bed, apparently still half asleep and thinking that the three-year-old was pestering him to wake. "Go bother someone else…" Zepphie thought about how funny it would be if she chucked a shoe at him and scared him senseless, but she decided not to. He seemed different from some of those derelict kids she'd met in the Meltokio slums. They had all moped and raged on about how they were poor and deserved better, and their whining had bothered Zepphie after a while. At least this one here just minded his own and made the best of it all…

"WHAT?" Kratos had opened his eyes to see a strange girl looking at him. He calmed himself, remembering who she was.

He mumbled under his breath about something, jumping out of bed. He sleeps in his clothes too… Zepphie couldn't help but notice.

The two teens stared awkwardly at each other for a moment, both wishing that the other would look away. Finally, Kratos awkwardly said, "D'ya wanna go fishing?" Zepphie opened her mouth to spit out a rude reply, but then reminded herself to be nice. Besides, she actually found herself wanting to try it.

"I guess," she grumbled, still trying to look disgruntled. Kratos smiled despite himself and they both walked out from under the deck and into the sun.

The two didn't say much during the first few minutes of just sitting on the railing, their feet dangling off the edge, but in a few minutes time Zepphie found herself holding the fishing rod as Kratos happily showed her how to cast. She was surprised to find herself having some fun.

"I can't believe you've never gone fishing or been on a boat," Kratos remarked as Zepphie cast the line. She shrugged; she didn't like it when people had to teach her how to do things. She was very independent, and hadn't learned how to work with others very well. Most of the time when Yuan tried to reason with her, they'd end up shouting.

"Well, I can't believe you've never stolen anything or gotten into a fist-fight," she retorted, but her voice wasn't as harsh as she usually liked it. Something about this kid made her feel a bit more relaxed. He shrugged. The sun was setting, streaking the sky with molten gold and pink.

"Well, we only go to ports once and a while, so there's no time to steal stuff, or any need, really," Kratos thought aloud. "And I can't fight my siblings because they're so pathetic. I practice fighting with my dad though, but that's with swords. And my Mom would probably die of shame if she figured out I'd been fighting or stealing; she's too obsessed with peace for her own good." Zepphie eyed his belt, but he didn't wear the sword around with him. Instead he had a small dagger that she guessed was used for gutting the fish he caught.

After dinner, the two went back to fishing, though they didn't catch much than a scup that both agreed was too small to bother keeping. Right when they were about to give up and head in for the night, Zepphie was nearly pulled off the railing with a hard tug on the line. Kratos awkwardly caught her before she went careening into the water below.

"PULL!" he exclaimed as she reeled it in frantically. Finally, a huge, silver finned fish jumped out of the water, its scales sparkling like genuine diamonds. Too stunned to move, they both stared at the wonderful catch for nearly half a minute. By then, it had nearly wiggled its way off the hook.

"Quick! Deck!" Kratos shouted, indicating where she should flop it down. She roughly lowered the fish onto the deck where Kratos de-hooked its mouth and watched it flop up and down. Suddenly both the two teens looked at each other. It was such a beautiful fish…

"Call me crazy," Kratos muttered, "but it's almost too good to keep." Zepphie, who had always thought that when you're given food, always take it, surprised herself by agreeing with him. The strange feeling of pity welled up inside her. What was wrong with her?

"You take the tail," Kratos said. "And we'll throw him back over." Silently, the two young people heaved the fish over the side of the boat and watched it swim away. Both of them looked at each other.

"That was probably the stupidest thing I've done in a long time," Zepphie snorted, and then, to her astonishment, she started laughing, laughing like she hadn't laughed in months. And Kratos was laughing too.

Farther over on the deck where his day glow pink sun chair lay, the older Kratos regarded the two with a smile. There they were: a reddish-brown haired boy, slightly guarded and reserved, and a tough, independent brown-haired girl. It was funny how familiar that scene looked to the older Kratos as he thought about another certain brown-haired woman he had loved and laughed… and lost.

**Sari: Ack, she wrote a... long... one... crap. YOUR EXPECTATIONS ARE NOT UP! NO THEY ARE NOT! –wanders off singing "your expectations are not up, oh no they're so not up"-**


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